Herve Wilmore Jr. and Delvin Jean Baptiste, Stolen Identity Tax Refund Scheme, Florida 2014

A federal jury in Miami convicted two men, Herve Wilmore Jr. and Delvin Jean Baptiste, for their participation in a stolen identity tax refund scheme resulting in millions of dollars in fraudulent activity.

The defendants, both 29 years old, were convicted of conspiring to defraud the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), commit wire fraud, and commit aggravated identity theft, all in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371; two counts of wire fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1343 and 2; and two counts of aggravated identity theft, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1028A(a)(1) and 2.

The evidence at trial established that Wilmore and Baptiste conspired to unjustly enrich themselves by recruiting knowing co-conspirators and unknowing victims to put businesses, bank accounts and Electronic Filing Identification Numbers (EFINs) in their names, through which fraudulent transactions would be conducted.

To accomplish this, the defendants used the personal identification information of individuals, many deceased, to prepare and file false and fraudulent income tax returns with the IRS. The defendants would obtain possession of fraudulently obtained refunds in the form of United States Treasury and Refund Anticipation Loan checks diverted to addresses or into bank accounts that they caused to be created and controlled.

The defendants would then negotiate the fraudulently obtained federal income tax refunds within each other's businesses, and elsewhere, to avoid being detected.

According to evidence at trial and court documents, Wilmore, Baptiste and their co-conspirators caused the filing of approximately $35 million in fraudulent federal income tax return refunds of which the IRS paid out approximately $14 million.

Sentencing is scheduled for June 12, 2014 at 9:30 a.m. before U.S. District Judge Robert N. Scola. The defendants face a possible maximum statutory sentence of five years in prison for the conspiracy count, 20 years in prison for each count of wire fraud, and two years consecutive in prison for each count of aggravated identity theft.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdfl/pr/two-defendants-convicted-stolen-identity-tax-refund-scheme-resulting-millions-dollars