Two South Florida women have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms for identity theft and tax fraud involving some 2,000 false income tax returns.
U.S. District Judge James Cohn in Fort Lauderdale sentenced 36-year-old Alci Bonannee on Thursday to more than 26 years behind bars. The judge sentenced 40-year-old Sonyini Clay to 10 years in prison. Bonannee was convicted in January of several charges and Clay pleaded guilty.
Prosecutors say the scheme operated from December 2010 to 2012 and involved returns submitted to the Internal Revenue Service seeking refunds of about $11 million. Of that, the IRS paid out about $3.5 million.
Trial testimony showed most of the stolen IDs came from a hospital nurse.
A third woman was sentenced in March to more than three years in prison.
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