Andi Junior Jacques was sentenced to 16 years in prison and Dickenson Elan to 11 years, three months with each to pay $4.3 million in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service. Jacques pleaded guilty to RICO conspiracy and ID theft in August and Elan was found guilty in November.

Six co-defendants were previously sentenced with an additional defendant awaiting sentencing. All nine are Florida residents. Jacques and Elan drew the longest terms. Michael Jean Poix, who pleaded guilty in August, was sentenced to 10 years, 10 months in prison and ordered to pay $130,771 in restitution.

The group purchased server credentials for CPA and tax preparation firms on the dark web and used those credentials to intrude on those systems and exfiltrate the tax returns of thousands of taxpayer clients, filing more than 9,000 false returns. They then opened bank accounts in the same of fraudulent tax businesses to receive refunds, disguised as fake preparer fees.

They then hijacked” PTINs to file scores of additional false tax returns, using stolen identifies.

The rest of the defendants, their pleas and charges and sentences are as follows:                                                                                                     *Louisaint Jolteus, guilty to RICO conspiracy in July; nine years, two months in prison; $2,928,841 in restitution.                                                         *Alain Jean-Louis, guilty to RICO conspiracy and aggravated identity theft in August; eight years, six months in prison; $2,554,907 in restitution. *Monika Shauntel Jenkins, guilty to RICO conspiracy and aggravated identity theft in September; seven years, three months in prison; $3,384,913 in restitution.                                                                                                                                                                                                                             *Jeff Jordan Propht-Francisque, guilty to RICO conspiracy in August; six years, eight months in prison; $1,941,533 in restitution                               *Louis Noel Michel, guilty to RICO conspiracy and aggravated identity theft in July; six years, eight months in prison; $1,941,533 in restitution              *Jeff Jordan Propht-Francisque, guilty to RICO conspiracy in August; four years in prison; $2,574,235 in restitution.                                            *Vladimyr Cherelus, guilty to RICO conspiracy in September; awaiting sentencing.

Bob Scott

• Email

Bob Scott has provided information to the tax and accounting community since 1991, first as technology editor of Accounting Today, and from 1997 through 2009 as editor of its sister publication, Accounting Technology. He is known throughout the industry for his depth of knowledge and for his high journalistic standards.  Scott has made frequent appearances as a speaker, moderator and panelist and events serving tax and accounting professionals. He  has a strong background in computer journalism as an editor with two former trade publications, Computer+Software News and MIS Week and spent several years with weekly and daily newspapers in Morris County New Jersey prior to that.  A graduate of Indiana University with a degree in journalism, Bob is a native of Madison, Ind