Page 3 - Florida Sentinel 2-21-17

Tax Frauds
Man Gets Nearly 4 Years; Must Repay $326,133 To IRS In Tax Fraud Case
Last week, a federal judge sentenced a Tampa man to serve time in federal prison. He pleaded guilty to filing false federal income tax claims November 28, 2016.
U. S. District Judge Charlene E. Honeywell sentenced Walter Fam- bro to serve 3 years and 10 months in prison for his role in committing stolen identity refund fraud. She also ordered him to pay restitution to the Internal Revenue Service in the amount of $326,133.
According to court documents, Fam- bro filed false income tax returns in the names of living and deceased persons.
Officials learned of Fambro’s illegal activity after the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office conducted a traffic stop on September 1, 2013.
When the black BMW was stopped, Fambro was the driver. At the time of the traffic stop, Fambro was arrested and charged with misdemeanor battery, felony possession of marijuana with the intent to deliver, and other offenses.
After Fambro was arrested, the deputies searched the vehicle and found
WALTER FAMBRO
a shoe box with several envelopes con- taining marijuana, 29 debit cards in the names of several other people, ledger notebooks, a laptop computer, an I-Pad, two cell phones, and patient information from individuals who had visited St. Joseph’s Hospital.
Court records indicated that Fambro had begun filing false income tax returns in July 2011 and had continued until his arrest, court records show.
Woman Pleads Guilty To $173,000 Tax Fraud Scam
A 31-year-old Tampa woman en- tered a guilty plea to federal income tax fraud last week. She is facing a maxi- mum penalty of 20 years in federal prison
Court documents show Ms. Nejah Prince pleaded guilty to using credit cards and filing fraudulent income tax returns with the federal government.
According to the plea agreement, the Tampa Police Department con- ducted a search of Ms. Prince’s home in February 2013. During the search, they found copies of confidential med- ical records from the Veterans Affairs, notebooks with personal information of more than 200 people, printed tax returns, and several computers.
The investigation also revealed that Ms. Prince admitted to using the in- formation of one of those persons to open a credit card at Montgomery Ward. She had made more than $1,300 in purchases using that information, officials said.
Ms. Prince had also been involved in using information of another indi- vidual from the medical records recov- ered to file a fraudulent income tax return. She received more than $8,000
NEJAH PRINCE
from that return.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
determined that Ms. Prince had filed several other fraudulent income tax re- turns using the records of Veteran Af- fairs found inside Ms. Prince’s home.
The IRS estimated that it had lost $173,000 as a result of Ms. Prince’s illegal activities.
The courts have not scheduled a sentencing date for Ms. Prince.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2017 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 3