Planada man pleads guilty to federal tax fraud charges

MERCED -- A 26-year-old Planada man pleaded guilty Monday to two counts of mail fraud and two counts of filing false claims for federal tax refunds, according to the office of United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner.

Rafael Duran Garcia, 26, caused 121 false federal income tax returns to be submitted to the Internal Revenue Service in the names of third parties in a scheme to obtain tax refund checks, from September 2007 to April 2009, according to the complaint.

The tax returns were submitted to the IRS with W-2 Forms claiming false wage and withholding information, thereby making fraudulent claims for over $186,000 in federal tax refunds. The IRS suffered a loss of approximately $29,840 due to the scheme, according to Lauren Horwood, Wagner's spokesperson.

This case was handled by the criminal investigation division of the IRS. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kirk Sherriff is prosecuting the case. Garcia is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 13 by Chief United States District Judge Anthony W. Ishii.

He faces 20 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine on each mail fraud count, five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each false claims count, and up to three years of supervised release.

The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of various factors with regard to statutory sentencing factors and guidelines.

— Sun-Star staff