Tax Preparer Sentenced for Filing False IRS Returns for Undocumented Workers

A Gwinnett County woman who operated a Norcross-area company that offered financial and legal services mainly to the local Hispanic community was sentenced for filing false tax returns that claimed over $3.6 million in fraudulent refunds.

Laura Romina Delgado, 33, of Lawrenceville was sentenced to four years and three months in prison and three years of supervised release, the office of U.S. Attorney Sally Quillan Yates said in a press release Wednesday.

She also was ordered to pay restitution of more than $2 million. She pleaded guilty to wire fraud in July in federal court in Atlanta.

Delgado was accused of running Servicios Hispanos in Norcross, through which she electronically filed around 1,300 federal income tax returns from January 2013 to May 2014, claiming millions of dollars in fraudulent refunds.

Many of the returns were made in the names of people not documented to work in the U.S., and in some cases, prosecutors said she helped individuals get tax ID numbers to facilitate the fraud. She also submitted fraudulent W-2 forms and filed false applications for tax ID numbers.

“Honest, hard-working taxpayers who file their tax returns and pay their fair share of taxes should be assured that those who try to profit by filing false returns will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Quillian Yates said in a news release.