Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau announced today the indictment and guilty plea of a woman who stole the identity of another woman and used that identity to claim tax refunds on her 2005, 2006 and 2007 tax returns.

The defendant, 46, has been indicted on charges of grand larceny, offering a false instrument for filing and identity theft. The crimes charged in the indictment occurred between February 21, 2006 and April 15, 2008.

The defendant, pleaded guilty to Identity Theft in the First Degree, a class D felony, in State Supreme Court. CHERICO will be sentenced to 60 days in prison. In addition, CHERICO has agreed to pay $8,632 in personal income tax, accrued interest and penalties to the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. Some of CHERICO’s refunds were stopped without loss to the State treasury. She will also assist in clearing the name of the victim who has experienced difficulties in establishing her identity over the years, which will include consenting to the issuance of an order to expunge records of a marriage CHERICO entered into using the victim’s name on November 18, 1992. Though the marriage was later terminated by divorce, the victim was prevented from receiving a marriage license because she had no proof that the earlier marriage had ended.

The investigation leading to today’s guilty plea revealed that defendant used the name and social security number of one Sara Benitez to file New York and federal personal income tax returns for the tax year 2007, seeking a refund. Although New York never issued the requested refund, CHERICO used a passport that she had obtained in Sara Benitez’s name to cash a federal refund check of $2,693. At the same time CHERICO filed New York and federal 2007 New York personal income tax returns in her own name, using the victim’s information as her purported child care provider to increase the tax refund she claimed. CHERICO used this information in previous years of 2005 and 2006 for a similar purpose.

CHERICO sold or provided that information to MIGUELINA FANA, a Manhattan tax preparer. At least 16 other customers of the tax preparer falsely represented that Sara Benitez was their child care provider on a total of 24 filings for returns filed for tax years 2003 through 2007 and thereby inflated the amount of the tax refunds they claimed. Some of those that were interviewed said that they paid a fee to the tax preparer for the use of Sara Benitez’s name as a child care provider.  A photocopy of a United States passport issued in 1987 in the name of Sara Benitez but with CHERICO’s photograph was found during the execution of a search warrant at FANA’s office.

FANA was prosecuted earlier this year and is currently serving an intermittent jail term that runs until July 11, 2010. FANA pleaded guilty on July 15, 2009 to the Tax Law felony of Aiding or assisting in the giving of fraudulent returns, reports, or other documents; personal income and earnings tax. At the same time, she pleaded guilty to Welfare Fraud in the Third Degree, a class D felony. In addition to the jail sentence, FANA repaid the value of the welfare benefits she had fraudulently obtained and paid a $30,000 fine.

Said Mr. Morgenthau: “We have here the coupling of two insidious crimes that plague all honest New Yorkers, the theft of their identity and steady siphoning of funds from the State and City treasuries. On the eve of the 2010 tax filing season, all unscrupulous tax preparers and those who assist them by providing stolen identification information, are being scrutinized and will be brought to justice.”

Mr. Morgenthau thanked Acting Commissioner Jamie Woodward of the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance and her staff, Attorney-in-Charge Robert Eisman, Investigators Cheryl Holland, Angelique Aponte, Robert Devnani, Rebecca Garcia, Paul Gouck, George Bean, Auditors Nicholas Capkovic, Ronald Chan, Elias Delrosario, and Hui-Qing Cheu who assisted in this and the larger investigation.

Assistant District Attorney Maurice Mathis prosecuted the case under the supervision of Attorney Gilda I. Mariani, Chief of the Money Laundering and Tax Crimes Unit. District Attorney’s Chief Investigator Joseph Pennisi, and his staff also assisted in the Cherico case.

Defendant Information:

ARACELIS CHERICO, a/ka ARACELIS CONTRERAS, 3/10/1963
111 Wadsworth Avenue
New York, New York

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