January 8, 2004
The United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California United States announced this afternoon the arrest of Christine Mele Felise, 45, of Oakland, California based on a criminal complaint.
The complaint alleges that from March 2003 through January 6, 2004, Ms. Felise impersonated an Internal Revenue Service employee and fraudulently took $9,300 from an Oakland resident under the guise of handling a tax audit. Ms. Felise claimed to be an IRS auditor and indicated that she could assist the Oakland resident with a possible tax audit. In later conversations, Ms. Felise purported that she had reassigned the Oakland resident's tax audit to herself and falsely claimed that the IRS had assessed the Oakland resident in the amount of $16,762 in federal and state income taxes. In September 2003, Ms. Felise received over $ 9,000 from the Oakland resident to cover the taxes supposedly owed.
Additionally, in another scheme Ms. Felise portrayed to a different person that she had gotten that person a job working for her at the IRS. She then borrowed $ 4,000 from the person and repaid the money with checks drawn on closed accounts.
Ms. Felise is scheduled to make initial appearance on the complaint on January 8, 2004 at 9:30 a.m. before U.S. Magistrate-Judge James Larson at the federal court building in San Francisco.
Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration Special Agent in Charge Alan N. Hatcher stated that taxpayers and other persons can avoid being victims of impersonation schemes such as the one alleged against Ms. Felise. All Internal Revenue Service employees are issued a pictured government identification credential. Verification of employment can be done by calling the IRS. Also, IRS employees are prohibited from intervening in tax matters in which they have a personal interest.
If convicted, Ms. Felise faces a maximum sentence of three years imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, three years of supervised release, restitution of the money obtained from any victim of the fraud. A criminal complaint simply contains charges against an individual and, as with any defendant, Ms. Felise should be considered not guilty unless and until convicted. A defendant's ultimate sentence will be determined according to the Federal Sentencing Guidelines and imposed in the discretion of the Court.
A copy of this press release may be found on the U.S. Attorney's Office's website at www.usdoj.gov/usao/can. Related court documents and information may be found on the District Court website at www.cand.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.cand.uscourts/gov.
All press inquiries to the U.S. Attorney's Office should be directed to Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew J. Jacobs at (415) 436-7181.
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