Page 35 - Florida Sentinel 3-31-17

Crime
A federal judge sentenced a former Tampa car dealer- ship owner to serve time in prison. A money judgment was also entered in the case.
U. S. District Judge Mary Scriven sentenced Raymond Rodriguez, Jr., to serve 3 years, 1 month (37 months) in federal prison. He was facing a maximum of 20 years. The Court also or- dered a money judgment of $1,751,648 against him.
Rodriguez, 52, is the former owner of Rodriguez Auto Wholesale, 4116 N. Florida Avenue. He pleaded guilty to money laundering in September 2015.
According to the plea agreement, Rodriguez and his wife owned and operated the dealership. Beginning in 2009 and continuing until the end of 2012, Rodriguez knowingly sold vehicles to in- dividuals who had paid with
Ex-Car Dealer Gets 3 Years For Money Laundering
Gun And Ammunition Nets Man 6 Years In Prison
RAYMOND RODRIGUEZ, JR.
... Sentenced to 3 years and 1 month in prison
the proceeds from illegal nar- cotics sales and stolen iden- tity income tax refund fraud.
The plea agreement stated Rodriguez knew the funds were obtained illegally, but agreed to disguise the large cash transactions in a number of ways.
He agreed to accept the large amounts of cash, but did not file the forms re-
quired by the Internal Rev- enue Service. He also agreed to place vehicles in the names of straw buyers.
This would prevent law enforcement and other gov- ernmental entities from dis- covering the true owner of the vehicles or the funding used to purchase them.
The plea agreement fur- ther stated that Rodriguez promised his customers that he would keep a lien on cer- tain cars he sold, although he received full payment. By agreeing to this, it would allow him to claim the vehi- cles if they were seized by po- lice and return it to the owners or their families, the plea agreement stated.
During the 3-year period, investigators said Ro- driguez sold approximately 87 vehicles in this manner. He also laundered $1,751,648, officials said.
On Tuesday, U. S. District
Judge James D. Whitte- more handed down a federal prison sentence to a St. Pe- tersburg man. He pleaded guilty to possession of firearms and ammunition December 22, 2016.
According to Court docu- ments, Vaughn Matthews, 25, was taken into custody after a search warrant was ex- ecuted at his home on March 23, 2016. During the search, police recovered more than 20 pounds of marijuana, 3 firearms, and more than 50 rounds of assorted ammuni- tion. They also seized more than $86,000 in cash.
The investigation revealed that Matthews had been
VAUGHN MATTHEWS
working in conjunction with individuals in California and had trafficked at least 50 packages of marijuana into Florida using the U. S. mail.
Matthews had previ- ously been convicted of felony crimes and cannot own a gun or ammunition.
Man To Serve 6 Years For Theft Of Medical Records
Postal Carrier Must Pay IRS $10,335; Serve 21 Months In Fraud Case
ANTHONY MICHAEL HARRIS ... Sentenced to 6 years in prison
LARRY COX
... Pleaded guilty to conspiracy and identity theft
MAURICE RAHMAAN ... Co-defendant
A Bay Area man was sen- tenced to federal prison Monday and ordered to repay money illegally ob- tained from the Internal Revenue Service.
According to court docu- ments, Kevin Hai Cao was ordered to pay $10,334.86 to the IRS. He must serve 21 months in federal prison, and must be on 2 years of su- pervised release. The judge also ordered him to partici- pate in a mental health pro- gram to address gambling addictions and he is prohib- ited from opening any lines of credit or incurring any new credit charges without permission.
According to his plea agreement, between March 2015 and May 2016, Cao was employed as a postal carrier in Tampa. During that 14-month period, he and Mario Mendez, his co- defendant, conspired to de- fraud the U. S. Treasury
MARIO MENDEZ ... Co-defendant
Department by stealing mail and committing credit card fraud.
Once they obtained the victim’s personal informa- tion, they used it to file fraudulent income tax re- turns electronically.
Cao admitted to obtain- ing the fraudulent income tax returns and stealing valid refund checks from the mail as well. Mendez later sold the checks at a discount.
As part of the scheme,
one of the conspirators ap- plied for credit cards using the stolen information and used them to make pur- chases.
Officials said Mendez also assisted in creating e- mail accounts to file the bogus tax returns and fraud- ulent credit card applica- tions, officials said.
On March 24, 2016, Mendez sold two tax refund checks stolen from the mail to an undercover law en- forcement officer. On April 14, 2016, he sold 17 refund checks to an undercover offi- cer.
On April 18, 2016, one of the conspirators applied for credit cards using stolen in- formation. On April 29, 2016, a conspirator charged $4,312.40 on a Discover card in the name of one of the vic- tims.
Officials said the conspir- ators obtained $133,000 as a result of the scheme.
A 26-year-old man learned on Tuesday that he will serve time in federal prison. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy and aggravated identity on November 29, 2016.
U. S. District Judge James D. Whittemore sentenced Anthony Michael Harris to 6 years in federal prison. The Court also entered a money judgment of “at least $24,743.62, consid- ered the proceeds from the conspiracy to commit wire fraud, affecting a financial in- stitution, and access device fraud” against Harris.
The Court further said
Harris, Larry Chance Cox, and Maurice, Rah- maan, as well as any other conspirators convicted in the case would be responsible for the forfeiture money judg- ment.
Federal officials said Har- ris, 36-year-old Cox, and Rahmaan, 37, all of Tampa, conspired with others to use stolen identification for illegal purposes.
According to court docu- ments, Harris was an admin-
istrative employee at a pedi- atric gastroenterology prac- tice, and had access to patient medical records. The records contained the personal infor- mation of the children’s par- ents and guardians.
Harris conspired to steal information with Cox, Rah- maan and others. They agreed to share the proceeds after the information was then used to apply for credit cards and to file fraudulent federal income tax returns.
Investigators recovered the personal information of more than 13,000 people that Harris had stolen, and that was used for illegal purposes. They also attempted to file 180 fraudulent federal income tax returns using the informa- tion.
Cox pleaded guilty to con- spiracy and aggravated iden- tity theft on January 4, 2017. He is scheduled to be sen- tenced on April 3, 2017. Rah- maan entered a guilty plea on the same charges on Janu- ary 24, 2017. He is scheduled to be sentenced on April 10, 2017.
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