CAMDEN, N.J. (1010 WINS) — A New Jersey woman was sentenced to more than 13 years in prison for an elaborate scheme to steal over a half a million dollars in tax refund checks using identity theft, authorities said Monday.
The 36-year-old Clementon woman, Awilda Henriquez, and several co-conspirators recruited U.S. Postal Service mail carriers to steal 2013 tax refund checks from the mail.
The tax refunds were filed using the names and Social Security numbers of Puerto Rican residents with the checks directed to be mailed to a small section of Pennsauken, New Jersey.
Henriquez and her associates also recruited and paid “check couriers” to cash the stolen refund checks in different ways, including at various check cashing businesses in New Jersey where Henriquez had also paid tellers to participate in the fraud.
Check couriers would show bogus identification at the check cashing businesses matching the names of the stolen checks which the paid tellers would cash.
Henriquez’s scheme cost the U.S. Treasury $565,091 in losses which she will have to pay back in restitution. She was convicted on Dec. 9, 2021, of one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States government and steal United States mail, 13 counts of theft of government money, and 13 counts of aggravated identity theft.
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