{"id":58736,"date":"2025-11-18T16:34:24","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T16:34:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/58736\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T16:34:24","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T16:34:24","slug":"bakersfield-tax-preparer-sentenced-in-25-million-fraud-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/58736\/","title":{"rendered":"Bakersfield Tax Preparer Sentenced in $25 Million Fraud Scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Bakersfield tax return preparer was sentenced Monday to 18 months in prison for helping orchestrate a scheme that sought $25 million in fraudulent federal income tax refunds, federal prosecutors said.<\/p>\n<p>According to the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office, Victor Cruz, 41, prepared and filed more than 500 false tax returns between 2019 and 2023 as part of a wider operation led by Miguel Martinez, 42, a Mexican national living in the U.S. illegally.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors said Martinez created fake businesses and reported fictitious wages and withholding to the IRS, then filed thousands of tax returns in the names of supposed employees to claim refunds.<\/p>\n<p><a data-no-instant=\"1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bmwfresno.com\/\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"a2t-link\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"BMW 1280x180\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1761173413_533_Untitled-design-6.png\" alt=\"BMW 1280x180\"   width=\"1280\" height=\"180\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Cruz\u2019s filings made up about 10% to 15% of the false returns, and he received thousands of dollars in fees from Martinez, authorities said. The IRS ultimately paid out $2.3 million of the $25 million in refunds claimed.<\/p>\n<p>Martinez pleaded guilty in September 2024 and was sentenced to six years in prison.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014<\/p>\n<p>Connect with\u00a0\u00a0on social media. Got a tip? Send an\u00a0.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Bakersfield tax return preparer was sentenced Monday to 18 months in prison for helping orchestrate a scheme&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-58736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}