LITTLE ROCK—Cody Hiland, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, Gary Smith, Special-Agent-in-Charge, Southern Field Division, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), and Robert G. Feldt, Special-Agent-in-Charge, Social Security Administration (SSA), Dallas Field Division, announced today the sentencing of five defendants involved in an IRS impersonation scheme that netted millions of dollars from unsuspecting victims.
On Thursday, United States District Judge Billy Roy Wilson sentenced Yosvany Padilla, 27, of Hialeah, Fla., the leader of the conspiracy, to 135 months’ imprisonment, followed by two years of supervised release, and ordered the repayment of nearly $9 million in restitution. Padilla, in addition to personally collecting threat-induced wire transfers sent by victims believing they were paying owed taxes, supplied co-conspirators with false identification documents and coordinated the collection of wire transfers by other members of the conspiracy.