Mail carrier from Ridgewood among 7 charged in $2M tax refund scam

Mail carrier from Ridgewood among 7 charged in $2M tax refund scam
Wednesday May 29, 2013, 12:49 PM
BY  PETER J. SAMPSON
STAFF WRITER
The Record

A mail carrier from Bergen County was among seven people charged in a federal criminal complaint unsealed on Wednesday with conspiring to fraudulently obtain more than $2 million in government tax refund checks using stolen identities.

Lourdes Ortiz, 40, of Ridgewood, and Gloria Rivera, 39, of the Bronx, were both U.S. Postal Service employees who allegedly accepted bribes to divert refund checks from their mail route in Queens, N.Y. They surrendered to postal agents on Wednesday.

Fausto Bernard, 48, of Newark, was arrested by postal inspectors and agents of the Internal Revenue Service and the Secret Service.

Another defendant, Luis Pena, 43, of Yonkers, N.Y., was arrested Tuesday night. The four are expected to be brought before a federal magistrate in Newark this afternoon for an initial appearance.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/Mail_carrier_from_Ridgewood_among_7_charged_in_2M_tax_refund_scam.html