12/13/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 12/13/2024 09:47
BOSTON - A Brooklyn was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Boston in connection with a scheme to steal over $3 million in COVID relief tax credits using the stolen identity of a corporate executive in New Jersey.
Isaiah Aaron Tenryk, 28, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper to three years in prison followed by three years of supervised release. In September 2024, Tenryk pleaded guilty to bank fraud conspiracy, bank fraud and aggravated identity theft.
Tenryk and his co-conspirators used a fraudulent driver's license and the New Jersey executive's name and Social Security number to open an account at a bank in Boston. Tenryk then deposited an approximately $3 million Employee Retention Tax Credit check, payable to the executive's company, into the fraudulent account. In the days after Tenryk deposited the check, co-conspirators tried unsuccessfully to transfer the funds out of the account. Tenryk was arrested when he returned to the bank to attempt to wire money out of the account.
A co-conspirator, Linval Jackson, of Queens, was arrested in July 2024.
United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy; Jonathan Wlodyka, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service's Criminal Investigation in Boston; and Jodi Cohen, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division made the announcement. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kriss Basil of the Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit is prosecuting the case.