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Emmanuel A. Barrientos-Fermin, 39, must serve all of the term because there's no parole in the federal prison system.
Barrientos-Fermin previously admitted in US. District Court in Newark that he gave an unnamed co-conspirator a photo of himself that was used to produce bogus driver’s licenses with his picture on them.
The co-conspirator also gave him matching Social Security cards, driver’s licenses and W-2 forms – even birth certificates, Barrientos-Fermin told the judge in March 2021.
Armed with the documents, Barrientos-Fermin said, he went to various tax preparing companies posing as taxpayers to file returns.
He collected advance-refund debit cards, then gave them to the accomplice, who paid him $200 for each, Barrientos-Fermin told the judge.
Barrientos-Fermin confessed to the crimes as part of a guilty plea, negotiated with the government, to charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, access device fraud, and aggravated identity theft.
In addition to the sentence, U.S. District Judge Claire C. Cecchi sentenced Barriento-Fermin to three years of supervised release and ordered him to pay $17,373 in restitution.
Sellinger credited postal inspectors of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and special agents with the Newark office of IRS - Criminal Investigation with the investigation that produced the sentence secured by Assistant U.S. Attorney Fatime Meka Cano of his Government Fraud Unit in Newark.
The U.S. attorney also thanked Totowa police for their assistance.
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