Two Bakersfield, Calif., residents, one a tax prepare, have been charged for their alleged scheme to use stolen identifies in seeking more than $25 million in tax refunds.
Victor Cruz, the preparer, and Miguel Martinez, have been indicted on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States and submission of false claims to the Internal Revenue Servie. Martinez was also charged with identity theft.
Martinez, who has been in jail since June was in possession of more than $750,000 in tax refund checks and ID cards for more than 200 people.
Between November 2019 and June 2023, the defendants and others were allegedly involved in filing hundreds of fraudulent tax returns. They used stolen IDS to create fake business and reported phony wage and withholding information to the IRS.
Bob Scott has provided information to the tax and accounting community since 1991, first as technology editor of Accounting Today, and from 1997 through 2009 as editor of its sister publication, Accounting Technology. He is known throughout the industry for his depth of knowledge and for his high journalistic standards. Scott has made frequent appearances as a speaker, moderator and panelist and events serving tax and accounting professionals. He has a strong background in computer journalism as an editor with two former trade publications, Computer+Software News and MIS Week and spent several years with weekly and daily newspapers in Morris County New Jersey prior to that. A graduate of Indiana University with a degree in journalism, Bob is a native of Madison, Ind