CAMDEN — A Gloucester Township man was convicted Wednesday of a scheme where he negotiated 102 federal income tax refund checks totaling over $650,000, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
A U.S. District Court jury returned a guilty verdict against Jose Adames, 31, following an eight-day trial before U.S. District Judge Noel L. Hillman here. Adames was convicted of conspiring to defraud the Internal Revenue Service.
Jose Adames and his wife, Angelita, 35, of Bellmawr, negotiated 102 refund checks totaling $668,298.73 at a Camden check casher, according to evidence entered at trial. The IRS was able to trace the refund checks to false 2006 tax returns, and discovered that the filers had used Social Security numbers that did not belong to them and directed the refunds to be sent to addresses controlled by co-conspirators. The tax returns were prepared using false W-2 forms with New York addresses.
The couple — Angelita Adames pleaded guilty before her trial was to begin — received the refund checks from a co-conspirator located in Bronx, New York. Between February and November 2007, the pair cashed the checks at Imperial Check Cashing in Camden. Angelita Adames cashed about three to six refund checks, ranging from approximately $3,000 to $9,000, once or twice a week at ICC – where she paid three employees $100 per check.
The three employees circumvented the internal controls at ICC when processing the refund checks, concealing them by entering false names, addresses, or other information that did not correspond with the checks. Most of the checks had New York addresses, so the employees entered New Jersey addresses as ICC is not allowed to cash out-of-state checks.
During the investigation, law enforcement recorded Jose Adames talking about the scheme and how he paid off the cashiers not to take pictures when they were cashing the refund checks. Testimony at trial also indicated that Jose Adames became concerned when he read a New York Daily News article about a Bronx mailman being arrested for his involvement in an illegal tax refund scheme.
Jose Adames faces 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine when he is sentenced on Aug. 12.
Angelita Adames — who pleaded guilty to conspiracy — is to be sentenced on June 24.
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