Libia Hernandez-Garcia, Tax Fraud, Identity Theft, Social Security Fraud, Colorado 2014

A Denver woman’s scheme to swindle the IRS and obtain false identity has landed her in federal prison. Libia Hernandez-Garcia, 60, of Miami, Florida, formerly of Denver, Colorado, was sentenced to serve 12 months in federal prison for tax fraud, visa fraud, and social security fraud, federal authorities announced.

According to the charging documents, from 2009 through 2011, Hernandez-Garcia made false claims against the Internal Revenue Service, which she knew to be false by preparing and filing federal income tax returns for several individuals where the claims for income tax refunds were fraudulent.

She provided false information to a tax preparer, so refunds not belonging to her would be deposited into her own bank account. Hernandez-Garcia was ordered to report to a Bureau of Prisons facility within 15 days of designation.

Following her prison sentence, Hernandez-Garcia was ordered to serve 3 years on supervised release and ordered by Judge Arguello to pay over $70,000 in restitution.

She was indicted by a federal grand jury on May 21, 2013, followed by a superseding indictment on February 25, 2014. She pled guilty before Chief Judge Arguello on May 22, 2014.

This case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Bureau of Diplomatic Security Service (DSS), and Office of the Inspector General – Social Security Administration (SSA OIG).

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Brown. Hernandez-Garcia’s scheme not only targeted the IRS but also misused the Social Security Number of several individuals, causing the filing of individual income tax returns which falsely included the name and SSN, as a dependent, for the person identified as the filer of the tax return.

The defendant’s husband was also a victim of her scheme, as she assisted in the preparation and filing with the IRS the U.S. Individual Income Tax Return for tax years 2007 through 2010, which were materially false and fraudulent. She claimed dependents who could not lawfully be claimed as his dependents, resulting in higher refunds.

Hernandez-Garcia also made false statements under penalty of perjury in Petitions for a Nonimmigrant Worker packages, stating that her husband was an authorized official to make such a petition on behalf of a local hotel operating under a national brand name, and that he was authorized by the hotel to act on behalf of the company in labor certification matters.

Related Federal Cases