Drug raid uncovers massive tax fraud scheme
Posted on Monday, February 08 @ 11:26:52 EST
Topic: money campaigns cost illegal immigration
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 An income tax fraud scheme discovered during a
drug raid Thursday night is expected to lead to hundreds of thousands
of dollars in illegal tax refunds.
“I wouldn’t be surprised it went into the millions,” Etowah County Sheriff Todd Entrekin said during a news conference Friday.
Subjects: illegal immigration, illegal aliens, cost of, illegal immigrants, social security, income taxes, fraud, narcotics, earned income credit, tax returns
By Lisa Rogers
Times Staff Writer
February 5, 2010
Agents went to a mobile home on Sligo Road, just
off Egypt Road in the Rockledge community, Thursday night to raid a
suspected methamphetamine distribution ring and discovered more
evidence than expected in the tax scheme.
Lori Lei Bodden, 41, her husband, Carlos Cardona-Herrera, 36, and
Juan Hernandez-Telle, 22, were charged with trafficking in
methamphetamine. Bodden is expected to be charged with distribution of
methamphetamine.
Three-fourths of a pound of methamphetamine in its purest form,
ice, was found hidden in a baby wipes container. The drugs have a
street value of about $40,000.
Three children under the age of 4 were in the mobile home when
agents raided it Thursday night and the Etowah County Department of
Human Resources was called.
The drugs, along with guns, swords, cash, vehicles, a boat and several computers, were seized during the raid.
Those computers are expected to provide more information about the tax scheme, Entrekin said.
It is believed Bodden was filing income tax returns from her mobile
home, primarily tax returns for illegal immigrants, and claiming the
first-time home buyers tax credit of $8,000.
If someone is using a Social Security number and paid taxes through an employer, income tax returns can be filed.
“This was a very organized and elaborate tax fraud scheme,”
Entrekin said. Records to confirm about $200,000 in tax refunds were
discovered.
It is suspected that many more tax returns have been filed
electronically and that information can be obtained through a forensic
investigation of the computers.
It appears Bodden was profiting by filing the returns and charging
25 percent of the tax refund. The refunds were deposited into a bank
account over which she had control.
Agents found one instance in which a person’s refund was about $12,000 and she made $2,700.
District Attorney Jimmie Harp gave an example of one tax return in
which a person believed to be in the U.S. illegally made $6,000 last
year and got a $13,000 refund using the tax credit.
Etowah County Drug Enforcement Unit Commander Rob Savage said
investigators have not found any homes listed as purchased on the
returns that even exist.
“One was the address of a vacant lot,” he said.
Internal Revenue Service investigators have been contacted and are working the case.
“This started as a relatively routine narcotics case,” Savage said.
“We are somewhat outraged to see this occurring. The victims are the
taxpayers.
“This was in a double-wide trailer in the middle of western Etowah County.”
Brenn Tallent, supervisory resident agent at the Gadsden FBI
office, said the tax scheme is a new twist for the partners in the Safe
Streets Task Force.
“We’ve been taking drugs, guns and bad guys off the streets, but
this is a crime we haven’t seen,” Tallent said. “I commend the agents
on the streets for a job well done.”
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