OAKLAND– A federal jury convicted Janel McDonald today for her role in a conspiracy to cash stolen and fraudulently obtained U.S. Treasury checks, announced U.S. Attorney Brian J. Stretch and Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division.
McDonald, 38, of Los Angeles, was charged, along with 10 codefendants in November 2015, with conspiracy to commit theft of public money, theft of public money, and aggravated identity theft. According to the indictment and evidence presented at trial, from August 2013 through April 2015, McDonald’s co-conspirators stole deceased individuals’ personal identifying information from California death records and used it to file federal tax returns seeking refunds. They also obtained social security and refund checks that were stolen from the U.S. mail system. McDonald provided fake California IDs to her co-conspirators who used them to cash the stolen and fraudulently obtained U.S. Treasury checks. On November 5, 2015, McDonald was charged in a superseding indictment with conspiracy to defraud the United States, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371; two counts of theft of public money, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 641 & 2; and two counts of aggravated identity theft, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1028A. Pursuant to today’s verdict, McDonald was found guilty of all the charges.
Sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 1. McDonald faces a statutory maximum sentence of five years in prison for conspiracy to commit theft of public money, 10 years in prison for theft of public money and a mandatory minimum sentence of two years in prison for aggravated identity theft. She also faces a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties. However, any sentence following conviction will be imposed by the court only after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the federal statute governing the imposition of a sentence, 18 U.S.C. § 3553.
U.S. Attorney Stretch and Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Goldberg thanked special agents of the Internal Revenue Service–Criminal Investigation, who conducted the investigation, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Newman and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jose Olivera and Trial Attorney Gregory Bernstein of the Tax Division, who are prosecuting the case.