Stolen Identity Fraud Lands Tampa Man 4.5 Years in Prison

Tampa Man Sentenced for Stolen Identity Refund Fraud

Nedal Faisal Ahmad, a Tampa man, was sentenced to four years and three months in federal prison for mail fraud and aggravated identity theft. The sentence was handed down by U.S. District Judge Virginia M. Hernandez Covington yesterday.

According to court documents, Ahmad negotiated U.S. Treasury checks and reloadable debit cards containing fraudulently obtained tax refunds through his business, Al-Wafaa Trading, and other means. He would then swipe the debit cards at his business, keeping a large portion of the funds as a fee for processing the illegal funds. In total, Ahmad processed over $60,000 of fraudulently obtained tax refunds through his business.

Additionally, Ahmad was involved in cashing fraudulent U.S. Treasury checks. He would send these checks via the U.S. mail and other delivery services to an individual in New York, instructing the individual to pay him sixty percent of the funds from the check, while keeping the remaining forty percent. During an undercover operation, Ahmad sent the associate nine fraudulently obtained U.S. Treasury checks, totaling over $95,000 of stolen money from the U.S. Treasury.

The case was investigated by the United States Secret Service, Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, and the Tampa Police Department. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Sara C. Sweeney and Amanda L. Riedel.

This case was prosecuted as part of Operation Rainmaker, a coordinated effort among the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida and various federal and local law enforcement agencies to combat the filing of false tax returns in the Tampa Bay region.

As part of his sentence, the court also entered a money judgment in the amount of $35,989.75, the proceeds of the charged criminal conduct. Ahmad pleaded guilty on March 8, 2013.

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