IRS Refund Scam Gets Woman Over 120 Years In Prison

EL PASO, Texas (AP) — A Mexican woman faces more than 120 years in a U.S. prison for running a nearly $3 million IRS refunds scam involving stolen identities.

Elizabeth "Betty" Garcia de Nieto of Chihuahua, Mexico, was convicted Wednesday in El Paso. Garcia remains in custody pending sentencing for conspiracy to defraud the U.S., mail fraud, plus aiding and abetting aggravated identity theft.

Investigators say Garcia since 2010 used stolen identities to creature fraudulent U.S. tax returns and get average refunds of about $5,000.

Garcia paid other people to cash some of the IRS checks in El Paso, Oklahoma City and Chaparral, New Mexico. She kept most of the refunds.

A co-defendant, Christina Perez Altamirano of Oklahoma City, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and also awaits sentencing.