Miami-Dade Resident Sentenced to 14 Years in Prison in Identity Theft Tax Refund Fraud Scheme
Friday, January 16th, 2015 @ 9:37PM
U.S. Attorney’s Office January 13, 2015 · Southern District of Florida (313) 226-9100
Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, George L. Piro, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Kelly R. Jackson, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), and Alysa D. Erichs, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (ICE-HSI), announce that Wisly Toussaint, 36, of Miami, was sentenced to 14 years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, and was ordered to pay $317,557 in restitution.
Toussaint was previously convicted by a federal jury of one count of conspiracy to commit access device fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1029(b), two counts of access device fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1029(a), and five counts of aggravated identity theft, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1028A.
According to evidence presented during the five-day trial, Toussaint possessed and trafficked in personal identifying information (PII), that is names, dates of birth and social security numbers, stolen from a mental health facility in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In October of 2013, Toussaint was approached by two individuals cooperating with law enforcement and agreed to sell the cooperators the stolen PII, which Toussaint stated he obtained from a partner in Sarasota, Florida. Toussaint later sold the cooperators hundreds of identities stolen from the mental health facility in two separately recorded meetings.
Posted by Robert Strait
Categories: Online articles
