On June 17, 2024, in the Eastern District of California, Miguel Martinez pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to submit false claims.   

From November 2019, through June 2023, Miguel Martinez and his co-conspirators used stolen identities to create fake businesses. They then reported phony wage and withholding information for those businesses to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Martinez and his co-conspirators subsequently used other individuals' stolen identities to file individual federal income tax returns with the IRS that falsely reported wages and withholdings for those individuals from the fake businesses.

Martinez and his co-conspirators solicited and received advice from an IRS employee regarding how to avoid the IRS' fraud detection systems. The IRS employee’s advice included information about the IRS' monetary thresholds so that the tax returns Mr. Martinez and his co-conspirators filed were less likely to be deemed suspicious or flagged by the IRS for suspected fraud. As a result, Mr. Martinez and his co-conspirators filed thousands of fraudulent individual federal income tax returns with the IRS claiming over $9,500,000 in refunds, receiving $2,300,000 from the IRS in refunds.

Upon his arrest, Mr. Martinez was found with over $750,000 in fraudulent tax refund checks, identification cards for more than 200 people, and multiple firearms and ammunition.

Source: The facts in this case narrative come from the following publicly available documents, E.D. Cal. docket report entered June 17, 2024; and E.D. Cal. plea agr. dated May 24, 2024