Illinois woman sentenced to 55 months in federal prison for mail fraud

ROCKFORD, Ill. — An Illinois woman was sentenced Wednesday to nearly five years in federal prison for mail fraud.

This sentence was announced by the following agency heads:  Zachary T. Fardon, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; James D. Robnett, special agent-in-charge of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation Division in Chicago; E.C. Woodson, inspector-in-charge of the Chicago Division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service; and James M. Gibbons, special agent-in-charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Chicago.

Patty Cordoba, 44, of Crystal Lake, Illinois, was sentenced Sept. 28 by U.S. District Judge Frederick J. Kapala, Northern District of Illinois, to 55 months in federal prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release. Cordoba was also ordered to pay restitution of $1,115,072. Cordoba pleaded guilty to mail fraud charges May 23.

In the written plea agreement, Cordoba admitted that from March 1, 2009 to May 18, 2012, she and her co-defendants participated in a scheme to defraud and obtain refunds from the U.S. Treasury Department. Cordoba owned and managed Patty’s Tax Service in McHenry, Illinois. Cordoba and her three employee co-defendants — Mario Cordoba, Luisa Carbajal and Alicia Arevalo — prepared and filed more than 200 fraudulent personal federal income tax returns by claiming false amounts of income and credits for tax years 2006 through 2011.  These fraudulent tax returns were filed for co-defendants Olga Lidia Diaz-Hernandez, Victor Hernandez, Veronica Sanchez-Barradas, Cesar Besiche, and others.

The fraudulent tax returns were mailed and filed with the IRS, falsely claiming more than $1 million in tax refunds. Based on the false tax returns submitted to the IRS, the U.S. Treasury issued and mailed tax refund checks to the addresses listed on the false tax returns or caused the refunds to be directly deposited into bank accounts in the names of the filers. The IRS issued about $1.1 million in refunds to which defendant and her co-schemers were not entitled.

The following seven co-defendants previously pleaded guilty to mail fraud and were sentenced:

• Alicia Arevalo, 49, of Poplar Grove, Illinois, pleaded guilty May 16 and was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison and ordered to pay restitution of $1,115,072;
• Cesar Besiche, 50, of McHenry, Illinois, pleaded guilty Dec. 8 and was sentenced to time served and ordered to pay restitution of $74,902. He was turned over to ICE and placed into removal proceedings;
• Luisa Carbajal, 54, of Marengo, Illinois, pleaded guilty Feb. 26 and was sentenced to 16 months in federal prison, to be followed by two years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution of $1,115,072;
• Mario Cordoba, 49, of Crystal Lake, pleaded guilty May 26 and was sentenced to 33 months in federal prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay restitution of 1,115,072;
• Olga Lidia Dias-Hernandez, 46, of McHenry, pleaded guilty March 21 and was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison, and ordered to pay restitution of $166,296;
• Veronica Sanchez-Barradas, 40, of McHenry, pleaded guilty Feb. 24, and was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison, and ordered to pay restitution of $252,398;
• Victor Hernandez, 43, of McHenry, pleaded guilty Feb. 16 and was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison, and ordered to pay restitution of $252,398.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph C. Pedersen, Northern District of Illinois, prosecuted this case.