Bronx man gets 18 months in NJ, Puerto Rico tax scam

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A Bronx man was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Newark today to 18 months in federal prison for participating in a ring that tried to scam the IRS out of more than $300,000 in income tax returns that the U.S. Treasury sent to various New Jersey addresses.

Jerry DeMarco

06/04/2012 11:43 p.m.

Luis Figaro and two associates pleaded guilty in January to filing phony individual income tax returns with the IRS using the identities of people in Puerto Rico, who ordinarily don’t file as long as all of their income is derived from sources there.

Federal investigators recovered the $310,647 while arresting Figaro, 22, Pedro Rafael Castillo Roman, 27, Julio Alexander Lara Trinidad, 25.

U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman credited special agents of IRS Criminal Investigation unit and detectives with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, as well as Metuchen (Middlesex County) police with helping crack the case.

The pleas were secured by Assistant U.S. Attorneys José R. Almonte and Barbara Llanes of the U.S. Attorney’s Office General Crimes Unit in Newark.

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