A man who was employed delivering newspapers in Woburn, Massachusetts, has a serious tax crime problem. The 22-year-old man is accused of conning the newspaper subscribers he worked with out of $240,000.
According to the 23-count indictment, he filed false tax returns using the subscriber’s financial information. By doing so, he got tax refunds from the federal and the state government. At state level, there were 54 fake returns, and three refunds were paid. At federal level, two refunds were paid.
The man is a Nigerian national. Currently a resident of Reading, Massachusetts, he pleaded not guilty to the charges in Woburn’s Middlesex Superior Court. He is in custody with bail set at $25,000 cash, and was ordered to surrender his passport because a judge considered him a flight risk.
District Attorney Marian Ryan says that Ogiugo got tips from elderly subscribers, mostly via personal checks. He then used the routing and account numbers from those checks, along with other personal information about the subscribers, to open fraudulent bank accounts.
He then sent counterfeit checks to people in various states. Believing they were real, the recipients deposited the checks into their own accounts and then sent money to India. There, that money was deposited in accounts determined by the accused.
The federal Internal Revenue Service declined an opportunity to comment this Wednesday. However, the state Department of Revenue did comment on the case via email, saying that the state tries to stay ahead of tax schemes. Their spokeswoman, Ann Dufresne, said that the returns had been incorrectly scored as legitimate by manual reviewers. She said that the state would like to reclaim the money, and is exploring the best way to do so.
If you need help with tax crime legal troubles, it is important to secure an attorney who has experience with tax crime cases. They will give you the legal advice and quality representation you need.
Source: Boston.com, “Ex-newspaper delivery man indicted on ID theft, tax fraud charges” Travis Andersen, Jul. 10, 2013
