SAN JOSE–A Salinas, California woman was sentenced Wednesday to 30 months in prison for conspiring to file fraudulent claims for income tax refunds, federal prosecutors said.
On July 18, Norma Morfin, aka Norma Morfin Mandujano, pleaded guilty to conspiring to file fraudulent claims. According to the plea agreement and documents filed with the court, Morfin admitted that, during 2012, she conspired with her co-defendants to obtain the personal identifying information of others, and to use that information to file more than 2,300 fraudulent income tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service. These returns reported false wages, dependents, education expenses, and tax credits, and claimed fraudulent tax refunds of more than $9 million, of which more than $7.5 million were paid.
The sentence was handed down by the Honorable Lucy Koh, United States District Court Judge, in San Jose. In addition to the 30 month sentence and the $7,505,519 in restitution, Morfin was also sentenced to a three year period of supervised release. Co-defendants Jackie Ramos, Antonio Ahumada, and Ana Bajo have also pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.
