Israel Brito-Rodriguez, Tax Refund Scheme, Tennessee 2017

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Tax Refund Scheme Mastermind Pleads Guilty

Israel Brito-Rodriguez, 49, of Bowling Green, Kentucky, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States, as announced by Jack Smith, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee.

In a brazen scheme, Brito-Rodriguez, along with his family members Lorenzo Brito-Rodriguez, 40, and Eydi Ioena Brito-Rodriguez, 30, were charged with conspiring to file false federal income tax returns. The indictment also accused Brito-Rodriguez of possessing a counterfeit alien registration receipt, known as a ‘green card.’

According to court documents, between February 2014 and December 2015, the conspirators prepared and filed multiple false and fraudulent federal income tax returns, claiming refunds of more than $1,000 each. They used fake power of attorney documents to cash the checks and orchestrated interstate wire transfers to execute the scheme.

The scheme netted over $500,000 in proceeds from the false refund checks. Eydi Brito-Rodriguez and Lorenzo Brito-Rodriguez previously pleaded guilty to their roles in the conspiracy. Eydi Brito-Rodriguez was sentenced to serve nine months in prison and ordered to pay $100,000.00 in restitution to the IRS. Lorenzo Brito-Rodriguez was sentenced to 14 months in prison and ordered to pay $492,427.71 in restitution.

Brito-Rodriguez is scheduled to be sentenced on June 2, 2017, before U.S. District Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw, Jr. He faces a potential statutory maximum sentence of 5 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and 3 years of supervised release.

The case was investigated by the IRS-Criminal Investigation and Homeland Security Investigations. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Thomas J. Jaworski and Byron M. Jones represented the United States in this case, bringing justice to the victims of this elaborate tax refund scheme.