Vallejo woman gets 3-plus years for wire fraud, ID theft

A 52-year-old Vallejo woman was sentenced Thursday in a Sacramento federal court to more than three years in prison for wire fraud and identity theft, a U.S. Attorney said.

Tamara Manuel was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Troy L. Nunley to three years and three months in prison for carrying out a fraud scheme that involved stealing the identities of severely disabled people to obtain federal tax refunds, Phillip A. Talbert, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California, said in a press release.

Court records showed that, from February 1999 through August 2015, Manuel worked at Sonoma Development Center (SDC), a large, state-run facility in Eldridge serving the needs of individuals with developmental disabilities.

In her role at SDC, she had access to SDC patients' personal identification information, including Social Security numbers and birthdates, Talbert noted in the prepared statement.

Manuel began stealing SDC patients' identities in 2011 and filing phony tax returns in their names. In the returns, she falsified, among other things, the purported taxpayers' employment, wages, tax withholdings, and dependents.

She did so to claim exemptions, tax credits, and refunds the purported taxpayers were not due, said Talbert said.

For example, he added, Manuel falsely represented in a tax return that an SDC patient made more than $23,000 in annual income as a forklift driver, had a dependent, and was owed a child tax credit.

In reality, the patient had no income or dependents and was severely disabled, requiring observation and care 24 hours a day.

In all, Manuel stole the identities of at least 18 SDC patients to file 33 fraudulent tax returns in which she claimed refunds totaling more than $77,000. Based on those fraudulent returns, Manuel obtained almost $50,000 in refunds from the IRS, said Talbert.

In addition to SDC patients, Manuel also stole others' identities to file fraudulent federal tax returns in her and her son's names. Specifically, to maximize her and her son's tax refunds, Manuel included false dependent information in their returns, said Talbert.

For example, in her son's return for the 2016 tax year, which Manuel filed, she used the names and Social Security numbers of two individuals she falsely claimed were her son's nephews and dependents, he noted.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Thuesen prosecuted the case.

The case stemmed from an investigation by the IRS-Criminal Investigation.