A U.S. Marine from Miami was arrested for conspiracy to commit tax refund fraud after he sold the names and Social Security numbers of fellow Marines also serving in Afghanistan to be used in fraudulent tax returns, authorities said.
Jobson Cenor, 22, of Miami was due to make his initial appearance in federal court Wednesday in Wilmington, N.C., but will be moved to the Southern District of Florida to face the charges, authorities said.
Cenor, who was stationed at Camp Leatherneck in Afghanistan, sold the names, dates of birth and Social Security numbers of other Marines to a co-conspirator “who used the stolen identities to file tax returns seeking fraudulent refunds,” U.S. Attorney Wifredo Ferrer said as he announced the arrest along with officials from the FBI and IRS.
“Tax refund scams are the latest crime du jour resulting from identity theft. Still, when identity theft tax refund scams pits one Marine against another, it brings home the point that these refunds scams have become a national epidemic that must be eradicated,” Ferrer said in a statement. “For this reason, the investigation and prosecution of identity theft has become one of my top priorities.”
An affidavit for the case says that Cenor’s co-conspirator submitted 14 fraudulent tax returns for refunds to an online tax preparation company, and that several of those were in the names of Marines, authorities said.
On Feb. 9 the co-conspirator, at the FBI’s direction, called Cenor and said he had started filing tax returns using the identities Cenor provided. He told Cenor that he would get half of the refund money, or about $54,000, and Cenor told him to hold the money until he returned from Afghanistan, according to authorities.
Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents later seized a list from Cenor’s quarters that included the names and Social Security numbers of 44 Marines, and 21 of those names and numbers appeared on lists found at his co-conspirator’s home, authorities said.
