Two individuals were sentenced Tuesday in federal court in Anderson for their roles in a four-year $13 million fraud scheme against the Internal Revenue Service. Ariano Canseco-Orozco was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $382,500 in restitution. Omar Maldonada-Cardenas was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison and $1.2 million in restitution.
The two operated tax preparation businesses in Spartanburg, Boiling Springs, and Forest City, North Carolina that prepared more than 10,000 tax returns from 2006 to 2009, claiming more than $22 million in refunds. Thirteen million dollars in refunds were paid by the IRS before investigators discovered that most of the returns were fraudulent.
Agents estimate that more than 20 people were involved in the scheme in which tax preparers knowingly claimed credits or deductions to which filers were not entitled.
Eight other defendants were sentenced June 16.
