A Chula Vista woman will be sentenced June 14 for stealing more than $164,000 from the Internal Revenue Service while owing the agency for back taxes she had failed to pay.
Cecilia Hernandez, 46, admitted that she sent the IRS more than a half- million dollars in worthless checks written on closed accounts, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The checks were ostensibly intended to pay off a tax debt which Hernandez owed from previous years. The checks — written in 2011 and 2012 — were for amounts far greater than the tax debt and triggered a series of fraudulent refunds, prosecutors said.
In all, Hernandez wrote more than $525,000 in bad checks to the IRS, which resulted in her obtaining more than $164,000 in fraudulent refunds, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Among other things, Hernandez spent her illicit proceeds on a $33,000 Chrysler 300 and an extravagant Quinceanera 15th birthday celebration for her daughter costing more than $40,000, prosecutors said.
As part of her plea on Tuesday, Hernandez agreed to pay restitution of the funds stolen from the IRS.
–City News Service
