United States Attorney Richard B. Roper
Northern District of Texas

LOCAL MEN SENTENCED ON TAX CONVICTIONS

Defendants Admitted Being Part of a Scheme to Purchase Identities of Children

FORT WORTH, Texas — Two men who admitted being part of a scheme to purchase children’s identities and who pled guilty to aiding and assisting the preparation and presentation of a false and fraudulent tax return, have been sentenced, announced U.S. Attorney Richard B. Roper of the Northern District of Texas. Today, U.S. District Judge Terry R. Means sentenced Omar Said Omar to time served (six months and 12 days). On December 3, 2007, Judge Means sentenced his co-defendant, Charles Maina Kiiru, to eight months in prison. Kiiru was immediately remanded to begin serving his sentence. Both defendants were in the U.S. illegally and both, upon completion of their sentence of imprisonment, will be surrendered to immigration officials for deportation.

Factual resumes filed for both defendants state that on April 5, 2007, in Arlington, Texas, Omar Said Omar met with an Internal Revenue Service undercover agent identified only as “Reggie,” and purchased from “Reggie” a list of ten names and Social Security numbers that Omar thought belonged to children. Omar then delivered the list of names and Social Security numbers to Charles Maina Kiiru, who was in the business of preparing and filing federal income tax returns in Irving, Texas. According to a criminal complaint in the case, records maintained by the IRS Austin Service Center reflect that Kiiru is associated with Kiiru Enterprises and Tax Smart, Inc.

The factual resumes further state that Omar’s reason for buying the identities and delivering them to Kiiru was to assist Kiiru with preparing and presenting false and fraudulent federal income tax returns. Omar admits that he understood and intended that Kiiru would prepare and file federal income tax returns for his customers, falsely identifying the children from the list as dependents.

Court documents further state that Omar understood that falsely claiming the children as dependents would enable Kiiru’s customers to claim exemptions to which they were not entitled. Omar understood that the result in each case would be falsely understating the taxpayer’s tax liability, usually resulting in the payment of tax refunds that the taxpayers were not entitled to receive.

U.S. Attorney Roper praised the investigative efforts of the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation and Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Alan Buie.

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