Tag: IRS-CI
Ronald J. Roach, Ponzi Scheme, California 2019
⏱ 2 min read A ruthless $1 billion Ponzi scheme that bilked investors has been brought to a close with the sentencing of Ronald J. Roach, 59, the accountant for DC Solar. Roach was sentenced to 66 months in prison after pleading guilty in 2019. The scheme, which was operated from California, was a brazen…
Stefan Pildes, Wire Fraud, New York 2026
⏱ 3 min read A New York City charity event turned out to be a giant scam. Stefan Pildes, the mastermind behind SantaCon, allegedly used the event to bilk over $1 million from attendees and local charities. Organizers claimed the event would raise millions for charity, but instead, Pildes used the cash to fund his…
Leslie Victor Gentry, Filing False Claims for Refund, Arizona 2026
⏱ 2 min read A brazen Peoria con man bilked the government out of $1.8 million in COVID tax credits by filing fake tax returns for two shuttered businesses he owned. Leslie Victor Gentry, 54, pleaded guilty on April 8 to filing false claims for refund, admitting he submitted 14 phony Form 941 tax returns…
Gedeon Agbeyome, Business Email Compromise Fraud, Maryland 2023
⏱ 2 min read Gedeon Agbeyome, a 31-year-old illegal alien from Togo, was sentenced to six years in prison for his role in a massive money laundering scheme that bilked nearly $3 million from unsuspecting victims in Maryland. The scheme, which involved business email compromise fraud, was carried out between June 2021 and May 2023.…
Tracey Hernandez, Tax Refund Scheme, North Carolina 2022
⏱ 3 min read Tracey Hernandez, 39, of Burlington, North Carolina, is headed to federal prison for 25 months after pleading guilty to cooking up a million-dollar tax refund scheme. The feds say Hernandez filed over 200 bogus tax returns for clients in 2021 and 2022, raking in fraudulent refunds. The sentencing came down this…
Crystal Renee Severson, Skimming Fees, West Virginia 2022
⏱ 2 min read RELATED: WV Barber Board Staffer Pilfered Fees SEE ALSO: Elderly Ripped Off: $5M Scam Lands DR National in US Jail GAULEY BRIDGE, WV – Crystal Renee Severson, 45, copped a plea in federal court today, admitting she skimmed nearly two grand in licensing fees from aspiring nail technicians. Severson, who worked…
Michael Jett, Tax Evasion, Missouri 2017
⏱ 2 min read Michael Jett, 60, of Independence, Missouri, will spend nearly two years in federal prison after admitting he stiffed the government – and the state of Missouri – on his taxes for six years straight. The timeshare salesman pulled the scheme between 2017 and 2022, falsifying exemptions to avoid paycheck withholding and…
Karen McGinnis, Tax Evasion, PA, 2023
⏱ 2 min read Karen McGinnis, 46, of Mountain Top, Pennsylvania, is heading to federal prison after a two-year scheme to skim over $400,000 from the taxpayers of Fairview Township. U.S. District Judge Karoline Mehalchick slapped her with a 20-month sentence yesterday, a small price to pay for betraying the public trust. From March 2023…
Karen McGinnis, Embezzlement, Pennsylvania 2023
⏱ 2 min read Karen McGinnis, 46, of Mountain Top, Pennsylvania, is going to federal prison for turning her role as Fairview Township’s tax collector into a personal piggy bank. Between March 2023 and January 2025, McGinnis siphoned off over $400,000 in property tax payments meant for the township, Luzerne County, and the Crestwood School…
Donald Smith, Wire Fraud, Pennsylvania 2023
⏱ 3 min read Donald Smith, 75, a Pittsburgh defense contractor, is staring down serious prison time after a federal jury found him guilty of fleecing the U.S. military. Smith bilked the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) out of over a million bucks, delivering either shoddy goods or nothing at all, then tried to cover it…
