Man Convicted at Trial on Offenses Related to a Stolen Identity Refund Scheme is Sentenced to 57 Months in Federal Prison
DALLAS — Angelbert Evoulou was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Sam A. Lindsay to 57 months in federal prison following his conviction at trial in May 2016 on several offenses related to a stolen identity refund scheme, announced U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas.
Specifically, the jury convicted Evoulou of Conspiracy, Theft of Public Funds, Interstate Transportation of a Stolen Security, and Aggravated Identity Theft.
The government presented evidence at trial that during the investigation of a stolen refund ring, an individual advised an undercover special agent with Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Criminal Investigation that he could sell him an IRS refund check of approximately $595,000. After confirming the refund check was genuine and then arranging the purchase, two undercover agents met with Evoulou and three co-conspirators at an IHOP restaurant in Dallas at 1:00 in the morning on May 16, 2013. Evoulou and the coconspirators had flown in from Atlanta several hours earlier with the check. At the restaurant, Evoulou pulled out a magazine in which he had concealed the check. To prove the legitimacy of the refund check, he gave the undercover agent screenshots from an internal IRS database showing details about the victim taxpayer. When two of the conspirators stepped outside to retrieve the purchase money to pay the undercover agents, IRS agents converged to arrest the participants. Evoulou managed to elude arrest by exiting the restaurant with a group patrons of the restaurant.
The other conspirators were arrested and charged with federal offenses to which they pleaded guilty and were sentenced. Evoulou was subsequently identified, indicted, and arrested in March 2015.
IRS Criminal Investigation investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christopher Stokes and Camille Sparks prosecuted.
