California Resident Sentenced to Prison for Stealing Over $7.5 Million of Taxpayer Money

Norma Morfin, aka Norma Morfin Mandujano of Salinas, California, was sentenced today to 30 months in prison, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and United States Attorney Alex G. Tse.

On July 18, 2018, Morfin pleaded guilty to conspiring to file fraudulent claims for income tax refunds.  According to the plea agreement and documents filed with the court, Morfin admitted that, during 2012, she conspired with her co-defendants to obtain the personal identifying information of others, and to use that information to file more than 2,300 fraudulent income tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service.  These returns reported false wages, dependents, education expenses, and tax credits, and claimed fraudulent tax refunds of more than $9 million, of which more than $7.5 million were paid. 

The sentence was handed down by the Honorable Lucy H. Koh, United States District Court Judge, in San Jose.  In addition to the 30 month sentence and the $7,505,519 in restitution, Morfin was also sentenced to a three year period of supervised release. Co-defendants Jackie Ramos, Antonio Ahumada, and Ana Bajo have also pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman and U.S. Attorney Tse commended special agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation, who conducted the investigation and Assistant United States Attorney Michael Pitman and Trial Attorney Christopher Magnani are prosecuting the case.  The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation.

Additional information about the Tax Division and its enforcement efforts may be found on the division’s website.