A Moreno Valley man, wanted in an alleged refund fraud ring in California, today was sentenced to more than six years in prison for similar crimes in Arizona, according to the Franchise Tax Board (FTB).
Mike Garcia, Jr., 38, accepted a plea arrangement after being charged with 40 felonies relating to a tax refund scheme in Arizona. Authorities in Arizona say Garcia, Jr., was the ringleader of a refund fraud ring that included his nephew, Manuel Saldana, 21, also of Moreno Valley. According to investigators, the pair filed fraudulent Arizona state income tax returns in order to generate phony refund checks. Garcia, Jr., received more than $50,000 in the scam, while Saldana allegedly made off with more than $5,000.
Maricopa County (AZ) Superior Court Judge Stephen Gerst sentenced Garcia, Jr., and ordered him to pay restitution of $54,000.
Saldana was arrested by California authorities in January. In March, in a plea arrangement, he was sentenced in Riverside County to 16 months in prison for aiding in the preparation of a false state income tax return. He has since been extradited to Arizona, where he awaits arraignment on the tax charges.
California investigators say Saldana and Garcia, Jr., filed as many as 50 false state income tax returns for the years 1999 and 2000, in an attempt to claim more than $89,000 in income tax refunds. The pair used fictitious names, phony Social Security numbers and W-2 wage information on the bogus returns. Refunds were paid on five 1999 returns, resulting in a loss of $8,657, before the scam was detected.