A businessman from Kissimmee could spend the next decade behind bars after pleading guilty to stealing over $2.5 million in tax refunds over a nine-month period.
On Thursday, January 16, U.S. Attorney Roger B. Handberg announced that Edwin Rivera has pleaded guilty to theft of government property.
According to the plea agreement, between October 2023 and July 2024, Rivera operated a scheme with other co-conspirators to steal funds from the government by using fraudulent tax returns.
As part of the scheme, Rivera stole the identity of unspecified large corporations. He then filed fraudulent tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service on behalf of those companies, which led to the IRS generating tax refunds and mailing them to Rivera.
After receiving the checks from the IRS, Rivera deposited them into bank accounts that he controlled along with his co-conspirators.
In total, Rivera obtained at least four fraudulent tax refunds totaling $2,741,581.74.
A sentencing date for Rivera has not been scheduled yet. He is facing a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison.
This case was investigated by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration and the Internal Revenue Service. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Noah P. Dorman.