U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Https

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock () or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

January 27, 2021

Man Pleads Guilty to Wire Fraud for His Role in Theft of Economic Impact Payments

On November 19, 2020, in the Eastern District of Texas, James Mwanza pled guilty to wire fraud. Mwanza devised a scheme to defraud the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and obtain money by filing fraudulent tax returns. Mwanza was indicted on June 18, 2020 for wire fraud, theft of Government money, and aggravated identity theft.

According to the court documents, between approximately January 2020 through about April 2020, Mwanza presented himself as a tax preparer and unlawfully obtained from his employer and other sources personal identification information of individuals, which included their names, dates of birth, and Social Security Numbers. Mwanza also unlawfully obtained IRS Electronic Filing Numbers assigned to tax preparation firms not affiliated with him, to electronically file the returns and claim false tax refunds totaling $7,814. The filing of the false tax returns also triggered the issuance of Economic Impact Payments totaling $3,400.

If convicted, Mwanza could receive a maximum penalty of 20 years' imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.

Source:  The facts in this case narrative come from the following publicly available documents: E.D. Tex., Indict., June 18, 2020, and E.D. Tex., Change of Plea, November 19, 2020.