On Oct. 30, 2014, in Denver, Colorado, Libia Hernandez-Garcia, of Miami, Florida, formerly of Denver, Colorado, was sentenced to 12 months in prison, three years of supervised release and ordered to pay over $70,000 in restitution. Hernandez-Garcia pleaded guilty on May 22, 2014, to tax fraud, visa fraud and social security fraud. According to court documents, from 2009 through 2011, Hernandez-Garcia made false claims against the IRS by preparing and filing federal income tax returns for several individuals where the claims for income tax refunds were fraudulent. Particularly, Hernandez-Garcia provided false information to a tax preparer, so refunds not belonging to her would be deposited into her own bank account. Also, from 2009 through 2012, Hernandez-Garcia misused the social security number (SSN) of several individuals by 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. In addition, from 2008 through 2011, Hernandez-Garcia assisted in the preparation and filing with the IRS the U.S. Individual Income Tax Return of her husband for tax years 2007 through 2010 which were materially false and fraudulent. Dependents were claimed on her husband’s tax returns who could not lawfully be claimed as dependents of his. On her own personal tax returns for tax years 2006 through 2011, Hernandez-Garcia followed a similar pattern claiming dependents that could not be claimed as her dependents all in an effort to receive higher refunds.
On Oct. 29, 2014, in Sacramento, California, Jeremy Michael “Mike” Head, of Huntington Beach, was sentenced to 120 months in prison for a nationwide foreclosure rescue scam. In September 2014, Mike Head’s brother and co-defendant Charles Head was sentenced to 35 years in prison. According to evidence presented at trial, Mike Head played an important leadership role in a fraud scheme that promised to help homeowners avoid foreclosure and repair their credit. Through misrepresentations, fraud and forgery, the Head brothers and their associates substituted straw buyers for the victim homeowners on the titles of properties without the homeowners’ knowledge. These straw buyers were often friends and family members of the defendants. Once the straw buyers were on title to the homes, the defendants applied for mortgages to extract the maximum available equity from the homes. The defendants then shared the proceeds of the ill-gotten equity and the “rent” that the victim homeowners paid them. Ultimately, the victim homeowners were left with no home, no equity, and with damaged credit ratings. Between January 2004 and March 2006, the scam netted more than $15 million in fraudulently obtained funds from scores of homeowners.
On Oct. 27, 2014 in Statesville, North Carolina, Denise Swanson, of Lenoir, North Carolina, was sentenced to 24 months in prison, three years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution of $839,830 to client victims and $249,912 to IRS. Swanson previously pleaded guilty to tax evasion for tax year 2010. According to court documents, Swanson was the owner and operator of “Bottom-line Accounting,” a tax preparation and bookkeeping business. From 2006 to 2012, Swanson performed tax preparation services for her clients and their business, which included making related tax payments on their behalf. According to court records, Swanson received funds from her clients that were supposed to be used to pay their various tax obligations to IRS and other state agencies. But instead of making the payments, Swanson embezzled the money and used it to pay for personal expenses. Swanson failed to report the embezzled income on her own individual tax returns for tax years 2006 through 2011.