Two El Cajon tax preparers and their recruiter were sentenced Monday to 30 months in federal prison for their involvement in a tax preparation scam that preyed on immigrants and resulted in the filings of hundreds of bogus returns that netted more than $882,000 in fraudulent refunds.
Rahim Ali Cummings, 47, and Rashad Abdul-Rahim, 46, were sentenced for conspiring to commit mail fraud, filing false claims for tax refunds, fraudulent use of a Social Security number and aggravated identity theft.
Ebrahim Ashamu, 58, was sentenced for filing false claims for tax refunds and aggravated identity theft.
“This type of fraud increases the burden on honest taxpayers and negatively impacts honest citizens’ confidence in our tax system,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Alana W. Robinson. “The combination of tax fraud and identity theft continues to be a challenging law enforcement problem. Unscrupulous tax preparers and their associates should take notice: if you defraud the IRS and unsuspecting members of the public, law enforcement will bring you to justice and seek to hold you accountable.”
According to their plea agreements, between September 2011 and September 2012, Cummings and Ashamu prepared and filed the false tax returns out of their buinesses in El Cajon and employed Adbul-Rahim to recruit customers and obtain stolen identities.
Abdul-Rahim solicited and obtained the personal identifying information from the victims using false pretenses, such as informing the victims they could get “free” government money from grant and senior programs, and concealing the fact that their personal information would be used to file false tax returns.
An investigation by the Internal Revenue Service and the Secret Service showed that the defendants preyed on immigrants from countries such as Nigeria and Somalia, who knew very little, if anything, about U.S. tax laws.
Cummings received about $470,000 in fraudulent refunds deposited into his bank account, and Ashamu received more than $367,600. Abdul-Rahim netted about $45,000 in fraudulent refunds and got additional cash payments from Cummings and Ashamu for providing victims’ personal information.
Each defendant was ordered to make full restitution to the IRS for the false refunds they received.
–City News Service
