Indianapolis Businessman Netted $2.9 Million Filing Fraudulent Tax Returns

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Indiana announced that a 41-year old Indianapolis businessman has agreed to plead guilty to cashing more than 800 fraudulent income tax refunds. Angel Marchena Suazo owned Don Angel Multiservices, LLC, which claimed to provide legitimate tax and check cashing services.

�When someone files fraudulent tax returns, in essence, they steal from all Americans,� said U.S. Attorney Josh Minkler. �This office will always pursue tax thieves and as the deadline approaches for all of us to pay our taxes, those who choose to steal Treasury funds should be watching over their shoulder.�

What the U.S. Attorney's Office intentionally omits from its news release is the fact that con men like Sauzo use undocumented immigrants as pawns in this scheme to prepare and file fraudulent tax refunds. There's no indication in the press release that any of the persons who pocketed the funds stolen from the IRS after Sauzo took his 15% cut of the fraudulent refunds were charged with any crimes.

These guys typically use stolen social security numbers to file these returns, which innocent taxpayers discover when they file their tax returns only to learn someone else has already filed and claimed a refund using their social security number. Sauzo didn't always rely on others. He also submitted about 100 fraudulent returns to directly benefit himself from which he pocketed $21,000 of the $227,000 in claimed refunds before the IRS caught on to his scam.

A U.S. Treasury's Inspector General memo from the week of June 9, 2014 prepared for the White House noted the arrest of Sauzo and a woman, Jacqueline Chavez Barragan, for violation of conspiracy, false claims, theft of public funds and aggravated identity theft. Virtually the entire background report on their arrest was redacted from the document. The Office of Inspector General, the IRS and the Secret Service executed search warrants and arrested Sauzo and Barragan on May 29, 2014. "Numerous treasury check images, identification documents, debit card images, and lists of personal identifiable information were recovered from the search warrant locations," the memo read. The U.S. Attorney's Office press release makes no mention of Barragan.

Suazo has agreed to pay full restitution for the $2.9 million stolen from the federal government. He faces a maximum prison sentence of ten years and a $250,000 fine.