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Cuban national to plead guilty in tax-refund scheme that used stolen UPMC IDs

Cuban national to plead guilty in tax-refund scheme that used stolen UPMC IDs

A woman accused of conspiring with others to file bogus U.S. tax returns using employee identifications stolen from UPMCโ€™s internal computer system has indicated she will admit to her role in ripping off the IRS and U.S. taxpayers.

Maritza Maxima Soler Nodarse, who had been living in Venezuela, and her lawyer have filed notice that she will enter a guilty plea in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh on July 21. She is charged with conspiracy and money laundering.

U.S. District Judge Mark Hornak will also sentence her that day. Her attorney declined to comment Tuesday.

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Ms. Nodarse, a native of Cuba, is accused of conspiring with Yoandy Perez Llanes, 33, also a Cuban native living in Venezuela, and several other unnamed suspects in an online refund scheme of the type that has become increasingly common.

Cuban national to spend six more months in jail before deportation in UPMC ID tax-fraud case
Torsten Ove
Cuban national to spend six more months in jail before deportation in UPMC ID tax-fraud case

Mr. Llanes pleaded guilty in April to money laundering conspiracy and aggravated identity theft.

He and Ms. Nodarse were among a group of people who took advantage of thousands of UPMC W-2 forms stolen by hackers and sold online in 2014.

The Secret Service and the IRS in Pittsburgh are still working to identify and prosecute the hackers, but in the meantime prosecutors have gone after those who bought the stolen data and used it for their own ends.

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Prosecutors say Mr. Llanes, Ms. Nodarse and their associates filed tax returns using the stolen W-2s and obtained about $1.4 million in illegal refunds from the U.S. Treasury.

They then used the money to buy Amazon.com credits, a monetizing service offered through Turbo Tax, to buy electronics, which were then sent through reshipping companies in Miami to several locations in Venezuela. There, the conspirators sold the merchandise online.

Mr. Llanes was extradited to Pittsburgh in 2016 in a move hailed by the U.S. Attorneyโ€™s office as a Justice Department victory in bringing international cybercriminals to face justice in American courts. He will be sentenced in August.

Ms. Nodarse was arrested in March 2016 in Colombia and brought here in November.

First Published: July 11, 2017, 6:48 p.m.

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