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Marien Torres-Acevedo, 38, pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the government between January 2015 to July 2016, according to Acting United States Attorney Bruce D. Brandler.
Torres-Acevedo and her co-conspirators secured fraudulent U.S. Treasury checks and cashed them at various check-cashing businesses, including several in Pennsylvania, Brandler said.
Torres-Acevedo admitted that between $550,000 and $1.5 million in government losses occurred as a result of her scheme, Brandler said.
Torres-Acevedo also was held accountable for reportedly fabricating social media communications that threatened her and her family and providing them to investigators, who were able to trace the communications back to her, Brandler said.
Judge Mariani ordered Torres-Acevedo to pay $857,729 in restitution, Brandler said.
Torres-Acevedo is a citizen of the Dominican Republic and faces deportation at the end of her prison sentence, Brandler said.
Francisco Rodriguez-Polanco and another co-conspirator, Julio Polanco-Suarez, both pleaded guilty to similar offenses.
Rodriguez-Polanco was sentenced to 54 months in prison, while Suarez awaits sentencing.
A third co-conspirator, Alfred LiPuma, 81, was previously sentenced to three years of probation and paid $2.1 million in restitution and fines.
The case was investigated by the Department of the Treasury’s Office of the Inspector General, the Internal Revenue Service, Homeland Security Investigations, United States Postal Inspectors, and other federal and state law enforcement agencies.
Assistant United States Attorney Phillip J. Caraballo prosecuted the case.
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