A 50-year-old Pakistani man has been sentenced by Federal Court to more than three years in prison for carrying out a scheme to steal more than USD 800,000 in tax refunds.
The accused, Nisar Sahi was sentenced by US District Judge Denise Cote to 37 months in prison for stealing government funds, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara said.
"For four years Sahi stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax refunds that rightfully belonged to honest, hardworking American taxpayers," he said.
According to the information to which Sahi pled guilty, from 2011 to 2015, he devised and executed a scheme to obtain false and fraudulent tax returns totalling USD 803,995 from the federal agency-Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
He carried out this scheme by preparing and submitting to the IRS federal income tax returns, using the names and social security numbers of others and directing that the refunds be sent to bank accounts and addresses that he controlled.
In addition to the prison sentence, he has been ordered to forfeit nearly USD 320,000 in ill-gotten gains, and to pay restitution to the IRS in the same amount.
