Woman Living In Woodbridge Sentenced For Tax Refund Fraud: Feds

WOODBRIDGE, CT — An Ecuadoran woman living in Woodbridge has been sentenced in connection to a tax refund scheme, according to prosecutors. Olga Aucapina, aka Olga Aucapina Paredes, 53, was sentenced to five months in prison followed by three years of supervised release.

According to prosecutors, from May 2013 to April 2017, Aucapina and several other Ecuadoran nationals participated in a scheme to illegally obtain tax refunds from the IRS.

To obtain the refunds, Aucapina and others filed fraudulent federal tax returns in the names of other foreign nationals with the IRS. The fraudulent tax returns stated that the other foreign nationals resided in the U.S., earned wages from companies in the U.S., and had federal income tax withheld from their wages.

However, these people never worked for or earned income from those companies. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection also have no records of those filing the taxes even being in the U.S. during the relevant time periods, according to prosecutors.

The IRS issued tax refunds which were then deposited to bank accounts controlled by Aucapina and her associates.

Aucapina and her associates obtained 142 tax refunds, totaling about $435,500. Aucapina personally deposited 59 of those refunds, totaling about $177,589, into her own bank accounts.

Aucapina and her associates spent some of the proceeds for their personal use, and they wired some of the proceeds to relatives in Ecuador.

A judge ordered Aucapina to pay restitution of $177,589.

Aucapina, who is released on bond, is required to report to prison on May 30.

Aucapina and three others with were arrested in July 2021 on an indictment charging them with various crimes stemming from this scheme. Aucapina pleaded guilty in February to theft of public money. Her co-defendants pleaded guilty to related charges.