United States Attorney Roger B. Handberg has announced that Edwin Rivera, a businessman from Kissimmee, has pleaded guilty to the theft of government property. Rivera is facing a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison, though a date for sentencing has not yet been determined.
The plea agreement outlines that between October 2023 and July 2024, Rivera and his associates engaged in a scheme to defraud the government. The scheme involved stealing the identities of large corporations and filing fraudulent tax returns with the IRS on their behalf. This resulted in the IRS issuing tax refunds which were then mailed to Rivera. He subsequently deposited these checks into bank accounts controlled by himself and his co-conspirators. Through this fraudulent activity, Rivera obtained at least four tax refunds totaling $2,741,581.74.
The investigation into this case was conducted by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration along with the Internal Revenue Service. The prosecution is being handled by Assistant United States Attorney Noah P. Dorman.