Just one criminal enterprise by a Mexican illegal!
Whittier man accused of quarter-billion dollar in tax fraud scheme
Posted: 04/30/2012 09:37:59 PM PDT
SANTA ANA - A Whittier man appeared in U.S. District Court on Monday to answer charges that he promoted a fraudulent federal income tax return filing scheme and vehicle registration title washing scheme, officials said.
Arturo Villarreal-Alba, 44, an illegal immigrant, was named in a 34-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury last week.
"(Villarreal-Alba) was previously indicted in September 2011 as part of a larger scheme charging 55 individuals in a huge fraud scheme involving hundreds of false income tax returns that sought more that $250million in tax refunds," special agent Linda Lowery said.
He was originally indicted for aiding and assisting the filing of two false individual income tax returns for others, claiming fraudulent tax refunds in the amounts of $1,568,044 and $452,472.
The 34 counts include one count of conspiring to file false claims against the U.S. government, nine counts of mail fraud, three counts of bankruptcy fraud, one count of re-entering the U.S. illegally, four counts of filing false claims against the U.S. government, one count of identity theft fraud, and 15 counts of aggravated identity theft fraud.
"If convicted of all counts alleged in the indictment, the statutory maximum sentence (Villarreal-Alba) could receive is 270 years imprisonment," Lowery said.
Villarreal-Alba worked with Old Quest Foundation Inc. in Fontana, and De La Fuente Ramirez and Associates, or DLFRA, in Rancho
Cucamonga, two Southland companies charged in the scheme used to file fraudulent federal income tax returns containing bogus claims for refunds.
Old Quest allegedly filed more than 400 false federal income tax returns with the IRS, which together fraudulently claimed more than $250million in false income tax refunds. DLFRA filed more than 35 false federal income tax returns with the IRS, which allegedly claimed more than $19million in fraudulent income tax refunds.
"As a result of those alleged false federal income tax returns that Old Quest and DLFRA filed with the IRS, the IRS erroneously issued millions of dollars in tax refunds to Old Quest and DLFRA customers, including one refund for $816,594 who was defendant (Villarreal-Alda's) customer," Lowery said.
According to the indictment, Villarreal-Alda told customers with good credit that there was a special program for them, where they could use their good credit to purchase several new vehicles.
After the purchase of the vehicles, Villarreal-Alda's nonprofit organization would make all the payments due on those vehicle loans, and the customer would end up owning one of the vehicles, while the remaining vehicles would go to the nonprofit organization. In actuality, there was no such organization.
Villarreal-Alda allegedly would strip or "title wash" the liens from the vehicle titles. To do so, he would cause false documents to be prepared and filed with the California Department of Motor Vehicles to fraudulently remove the legal owners from the titles of the vehicles.
In addition, Villarreal-Alda would cause false documents to be prepared and filed with the DMV to remove the registered owner from the titles of the vehicles.
Vehicles used in the scheme included a 2008 Cadillac Escalade, a 2010 Toyota 4Runner, and a 2010 Honda Pilot.
The case is being investigated by IRS-Criminal Investigation, with the cooperation of the California Highway Patrol-Task Force for Regional Auto Theft Prevention, in conjunction with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California.
Staff Reports
http://www.whittierdailynews.com/news/ci_20518608/whittier-man-accused-quarter-billion-dollar-tax-fraud