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Date: 02-27-2023
Case Style:
United States of America v. Ryan Shern
Case Number: 1:22-cr-00146
Judge: Lee Yeakel
Court: United States District Court for the Western District of Texas (Travis County)
Plaintiff's Attorney: United States Attorney’s Office in Austin
Defendant's Attorney:
Description: Austin, Texas criminal defense lawyer represented Defendant charged with attempt and conspiracy to commit mail fraud and fraud with identification documents.
Ryan Shern, age 34, of Kyle, Texas participated in a conspiracy to use stolen identity theft information to seek fraudulent tax refunds from the IRS in the names of unsuspecting taxpayers. From 2016 through 2019, to facilitate access to the payments, Shern allowed co-conspirators to direct such refunds to his and his wife’s personal bank accounts and to prepaid debit cards he purchased and controlled.
Shern used a portion of the tax refunds to purchase money orders and luxury goods for himself. On at least one occasion, Shern used a copy of a false tax return filed using stolen identifying information to persuade the bank that it should release to his account a fraudulent refund totaling more than $250,000. Shern also wired, or directed his wife to wire, funds to co-conspirator bank accounts.
In addition to the term of imprisonment, U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel ordered Shern to serve three years of supervised release and to pay $726,165 in restitution to the United States.
Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Jaime Esparza for the Western District of Texas made the announcement.
IRS Criminal Investigation investigated the case.
Trial Attorneys Mitchell T. Galloway, Robert A. Kemins and Mary Frances Richardson of the Tax Division prosecuted the case.
Outcome: 41 months custody BOP to run consecutively to Count 2; 3 years SVR to run concurrent to Count 2; $100 special assessment, no fine, $726,165.00 restitution
24 months custody BOP to run consecutively to Count 1; 1 year SVR to run concurrent to Count 1; $100 special assessment, no fine
Plaintiff's Experts:
Defendant's Experts:
Comments: