Seven Charged in Tax Refund Fraud

Correction: The U.S. District Attorney's Office of New Jersey identified Lourdes Ortiz as residing in Ridgewood, New Jersey. After Patch later asked for verificiation of her residency, a representative of the office said the agents made a mistake in the news release. Ortiz is from Ridgewood in Queens, New York. The press release is attached to the article.

More than half a dozen people have been charged in a multimillion dollar scheme to fraudulently obtain income tax refunds using stolen personal information and bribes to mail carriers, US Attorney for New Jersey Paul Fishman announced Wednesday.

Lourdes Ortiz, 40, of Ridgewood, New York and Gloria Rivera, 39, of the Bronx, surrended to authorities while Fausto Bernard, 48, of Newark was arrested Wednesday. Another defendant, 43-year-old Luis Pena of Yonkers, New York, was arrested Tuesday. All were scheduled to appear in federal court in Newark Wednesday.

Raymundo Hernandez, 34, of the Bronx, is in custody in New York while another two men, Wellington Feliz and Isasias Hernandez, also of the Bronx, are still at large.

The government alleges that between December 2011 and April, the group received $2 million in IRS refunds after using stolen identity information to fill out tax returns.

Rivera and Ortiz, who are postal carriers in Queens, allegedly brought the checks to Pena, then the checks were deposited into straw bank accounts controlled by the other defendants, Fishman said. The accounts were associated with straw businesses, he also said.

Some of the cash was reportedly used for gambling trips to Atlantic City and to purchase new cars.