Tampa Man Sentenced In Stolen Identity Refund Fraud Scheme

Tampa, Florida – Senior U.S. District Judge James S. Moody, Jr. has sentenced Moses Wilcox to three years and four months’ imprisonment for his role in a stolen identity refund fraud scheme. The Court also entered a money judgment for $129,854.17, the amount of fraudulent income tax refunds that Wilcox had received directly into a bank account in his name.

Wilcox pleaded guilty to conspiracy and theft of government funds charges on February 27, 2017.

According to court documents, the conspiracy involved the filing of false and fraudulent income tax returns in the names of deceased individuals and other unwitting taxpayers. In these returns, the conspirators represented that they were entitled to receive the refunds for those unknowing taxpayers and requested that the IRS direct refunds in varying amounts to accounts that Wilcox and others had established at local financial institutions in their own names. As a result of this activity, the conspirators caused the IRS to issue fraudulent and unauthorized refunds totaling $389,479.07. In addition, the conspirators sought to obtain an additional $562,791.29 in fraudulent refunds that the IRS was able to block before payment was made.

This case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jay L. Hoffer.