Leader of North Texas fraud scheme involving family members sentenced to 6½ years in federal prison

DALLAS — The leader of a North Texas fraud scheme was sentenced Monday by U.S. District Judge Jane J. Boyle to 78 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $665,962 in restitution.

This sentence was announced by U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas.  This case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) Criminal Investigation, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Rolando Minano, 48, pleaded guilty in May 2016 to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud.  Rolando Minano’s ex-wife, Martha Irene Collantes, 53, and his stepson, Carlos Arturo Pastor Collantes, 32, were sentenced in May 2016 to 12 months and just over 10 months, respectively. Each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit theft of public funds.  Minano’s father, Francisco Minano Vargas, 73, and his mother, Santos Magdalena Toribio De Minano, 66, each pleaded guilty to misprision of a felony. Francisco Minano Vargas was sentenced to serve a two-year term of probation. Santos Magdalena Toribio De Minano is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 17.

This investigation began when USPIS notified IRS that the owner of a private mailbox at a commercial mail-receiving business in Garland, Texas, had received five Department of Treasury envelopes addressed in other people’s names.  The investigation revealed that all the envelopes contained refund checks.

Further investigation, according to documents filed in his case, showed that Rolando Francisco Minano ran a fraud scheme to obtain Department of the Treasury refund checks by making materially false and fictitious representations to the government. The defendants obtained multiple Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITIN) in their names and others by submitting false Peruvian passports. Rolando Francisco Minano notarized all of the ITIN applications, certifying the Peruvian passports were authentic. Tax returns were then filed with the false ITINs and refunds were directed to be mailed to multiple addresses under the defendants’ control.  Once received, the checks were endorsed by defendants and deposited into bank accounts they controlled and opened in their true names.

During the course of this conspiracy, the defendants deposited the following approximate amounts in fraudulently obtained U.S. Treasury checks, in the names of people other than themselves, into JP Morgan Chase bank accounts:  Rolando Francisco Minano, $19,932; Martha Irene Collantes, $148,091; Francisco Minano Vargas, $64,352; Santos Magdalena Toribio de Minano, $213,038; and Carlos Arturo Pastor Collantes, $59,104.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron Wiley, Northern District of Texas, was in charge of the prosecution.