Three Florida Men Plead Guilty to $7 Million Tax Refund Fraud, ID Theft

Three more suspects pleaded guilty in federal court in Miami Friday for their roles in a $7 million scheme that used the identities of dead people to file fraudulent income tax refund claims, U.S. Attorney Wifredo A. Ferrer said.

Henry “D” Dorvil, 35, of Hollywood, Brandon Johnson, 29, of Miami Gardens, and Ronald Gustave, 36, of Miami, face up to seven years in prison for pleading guilty to one count of conspiring to defraud the government and one count of aggravated identity theft, prosecutors said.

All three are scheduled to be sentenced in April. Court documents named them among 14 people who filed 1,747 fraudulent claims seeking $7 million in tax refunds.

In 2012, the IRS refunded Gustave $544,054. In 2010, Johnson and others received a total of $44,608 in refunds, records showed.

The group recruited both co-conspirators and unwitting victims — and used the names of deceased persons –to put businesses, bank accounts and Electronic Filing Identification Numbers in their names to conduct fraudulent transactions, investigators said.

They used the stolen personal information to file false income tax returns and get refund checks that were diverted to addresses or into bank accounts that they created and controlled. They would cash the fraudulent refunds through each other's businesses, and elsewhere, to avoid being detected, prosecutors said.

Co-defendants Dukens “DK” Eleazard, 33, of Pembroke Pines, Jesse Lamar Harrell, 26, of Miramar, Luckner “Nene” St. Fleur, 32, of Miami, and Marie “Fanfan” Eleazard, 32, of Miami, already have pleaded guilty to the same two charges. All face up to seven years in prison when sentenced in February and March, officials said.

Co-defendant Marc Leroy Saint Juste, 26, of Tamarac, previously pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to defraud the government and was sentenced to two months in prison, followed by one year of probation, records showed.

Ruth “Princess” Cartwright, 30, formerly of Plantation, is scheduled to change her plea in February.

Trials are set in February for John Similien, 24, of Plantation, Delvin “Doo Doo” Jean Baptiste, 29, of Miramar, Herve Wilmore Jr., 29, of Aventura, Miguel Patterson, 35, of Miami, and Corey Williams, 30, of Miami Gardens.

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