OPA-LOCKA, Fla. – An Opa-locka high school band director and former Plantation high school assistant band director has been charged in an identity tax fraud scheme that involved former Broward County students' and other individuals' person identifying information, according to the Department of Justice.
A criminal complaint that was filed March 11 said investigators found that 419 suspicious tax returns claiming refunds that totaled $754,470 were filed from 27-year-old Delvis Demaine Rogers' residential address from Jan. 25, 2014, to April 20, 2014.
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Agents executed a search warrant at Rogers' home and seized 2013 tax returns and papers, notes and documents that contained thousands of people's personal identifying information -- names, dates of birth and Social Security numbers -- including those of more than a dozen Broward County School District students. Agents said some of them dated back to the late 1990s.
According to the DOJ, during the execution of the search warrant Rogers admitted to having prepared and filed hundreds of fraudulent tax returns without the permission of the people whose names they were filed under.
Rogers is charged with one count of using one or more unauthorized access devices, one count of possession of 15 or more unauthorized access devices and four counts of aggravated identity theft.
Rogers pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Thursday. If convicted he faces a maximum statutory sentence of 10 years in prison for each of the unauthorized access charges and a mandatory term of two years in prison, consecutive to any other term of imprisonment, for the aggravated identity theft charges.
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