OnlyFans; Telegram app; seven acres in Evergreen; and other highlights of recent tax cases.
Philadelphia: Alexander Telewoda, 26, of Clifton Heights, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to 78 months in prison, three years of supervised release, restitution of $10,841,731.83 and forfeiture of $162,144.50 for conspiring with three others to steal and sell thousands of U.S. Treasury checks.
The defendant was charged by superseding indictment in May 2025, along with co-defendants Saahir Irby, 28, and Tauheed Tucker, 24, both of Philadelphia, and Cory Scott, 26, of Ardmore, Pennsylvania. All four pleaded guilty this May to conspiracy to steal government funds, theft of government funds and mail theft.
Telewoda was an integral member of the conspiracy. Between June 2023 and September 2024, Irby and Tucker, while working as U.S. Postal Service mail processing clerks, stole thousands of envelopes containing U.S. Treasury checks from mail sorting machines at the USPS Philadelphia Processing and Distribution Center.
Irby and Tucker removed the checks from the USPS facility and sold them to defendants Scott and Telewoda, who then advertised the stolen checks for resale on the Telegram app. Upon receiving payment from interested buyers, Scott and Telewoda mailed the stolen Treasury checks to buyers around the country who attempted to cash the stolen checks.
Over the course of the scheme, Irby and Tucker sold Scott and Telewoda thousands of stolen Treasury checks whose face value exceeded $84 million. Scott's and Telewoda's customers successfully negotiated approximately $11 million worth of these stolen Treasury checks at financial institutions.
Even after Irby and Tucker were fired from the Postal Service, Telewoda wasn't discouraged from his crimes. He found a replacement source of stolen Treasury checks and continued to advertise and resell them. By the time of his arrest in June 2025, Telewoda had been tied to stolen Treasury checks with an aggregate face value totaling more than $121 million, including more than $3 million in stolen checks recovered from his home on the day of his arrest.
Irby, Tucker and Scott are scheduled to be sentenced in October. Irby faces a maximum possible term of 25 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a $1,000,000 fine. Tucker and Scott each face a maximum possible sentence of 20 year in prison, three years of supervised release and a $750,000 fine.
Boston: A Brockton man was sentenced for depositing stolen and altered U.S. Treasury checks into shell company bank accounts that he controlled and then withdrawing the stolen money to conceal its origin.
Gino Rosario Tyler Alexander Allegra, 32, was sentenced to time served of approximately nine months, to be followed by three years of supervised release. The court also ordered Allegra to pay restitution in the amount of $545,090. In May Allegra pleaded guilty to four counts of theft of government funds, four counts of bank fraud and three counts of money laundering. Allegra was charged in a superseding indictment in September 2025 and detained pending trial.
Allegra obtained U.S. Treasury checks that had been issued as tax refunds to individuals and businesses throughout the United States but were later stolen. Allegra deposited these checks into bank accounts that he opened in the name of World Advance Inc., a Massachusetts shell company with no bona fide operations. The stolen checks were altered to name WAI as a payee instead of the actual taxpayers eligible for the refunds. Allegra also purchased bank checks payable to other shell businesses to conceal the origin of the stolen proceeds and deposited and laundered bank checks that others purchased using other stolen Treasury checks. In total, Allegra stole or laundered more than $1.2 million in government funds.
Tampa, Florida: Kylie Perez, a.k.a. Natalie Monroe, has been sentenced to one year in federal prison, followed by one year of supervised release, for filing a false tax return.
Perez was a content creator who operated under the stage name "Natalie Monroe" on OnlyFans, a subscription-based content platform. From 2019 through 2023, Perez earned more than $5.4 million from her accounts. Despite this fact, she engaged in a scheme to evade the assessment of taxes by filing a false tax return for calendar year 2019 and failing to pay at least $1.5 million in taxes owed for calendar years 2020 through 2023.
Chicago: A restaurateur who operated several eateries in Illinois and Colorado has been sentenced to two and a half years in federal prison for submitting fraudulent COVID-relief loan applications and failing to pay tax withholdings from his employees.
In 2020 and 2021, Jared Leonard, 45, of Littleton, Colorado, schemed to fraudulently obtain more than $2.3 million in small-business loans and grants under the CARES Act. Leonard submitted at least 10 fraudulent applications for Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan loans and grants purportedly on behalf of his restaurant businesses. The applications contained numerous false statements and misrepresentations regarding the businesses' operations, including the number of employees, gross revenues and payroll expenses. Leonard used the funds to purchase, among other things, vehicles, international travel and a luxurious personal residence on more than seven acres in Evergreen, Colorado.
In the 15 months prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Leonard failed to pay to the IRS federal income taxes, Social Security taxes and Medicare taxes that he had withheld on behalf of his employees in amounts totaling more than $430,000.
Leonard pleaded guilty earlier this year to federal wire fraud and tax charges and was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison and ordered to pay approximately $2.8 million in restitution to the IRS and U.S. Small Business Administration.
Greenbelt, Maryland: A Maryland woman pleaded guilty in federal court for her role in a scheme to fraudulently obtain more than $2.3 million in Paycheck Protection Program funds.
Carmen Hernandez, 49, of Hyattsville, Maryland, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with the scheme.
In 2014, Hernandez and her co-conspirators opened a tax preparation business, Integrated Multi Services Inc., in Silver Spring, Maryland, that they registered under Hernandez's name. Beginning in May 2020, and continuing until at least May 2023, Hernandez and her co-conspirators knowingly and willfully engaged in a scheme to fraudulently obtain Paycheck Protection Program loans guaranteed by the SBA.
As part of the scheme, Hernandez solicited IMS clients and others to use IMS's services to apply for PPP loans. One of Hernandez's co-conspirators submitted PPP loan applications that contained false information and fabricated supporting documents, including tax documents and business records to obtain larger loans for their clients. In some cases, the PPP-loan applications listed businesses that did not exist in any legitimate capacity. Hernandez and her co-conspirators then charged borrowers kickbacks based on a percentage of the funds received.
In total, Hernandez and her co-conspirators caused the submission of at least 120 fraudulent PPP-loan applications on behalf of at least 80 PPP loan borrowers, resulting in at least $2.3 million in fraudulent PPP loans.
Additionally, as she admitted in her guilty plea, Hernandez caused the submission of two false PPP-loan applications for herself. These loans, submitted in June 2020, and March 2021, contained multiple material representations and were supported by fabricated tax documents. As a result of these fraudulent PPP-loan applications, Hernandez obtained $37,224 in PPP funds that she was not eligible to receive.
Hernandez is facing up to 20 years in federal prison for conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Royal Oaks, California: Nicolas Mejia Ruvalcaba and Ana Ortiz Ruvalcaba, both 73, entered no contest pleas to charges of tax evasion, and of unlawful and dangerous housing they provided on their 23-acre property in Royal Oaks.
Nicolas Ruvalcaba pleaded no contest to two felony counts of tax evasion, as well as misdemeanor charges of providing unpermitted housing and failure to maintain workers' compensation insurance. Ana Ruvalcaba pleaded no contest to misdemeanor tax evasion, providing unpermitted housing and failure to maintain workers' compensation insurance.
Sentencing for the Ruvalcabas is scheduled for Sept. 29. Both defendants face up to 364 days in county jail.
Under the plea agreement, the Ruvalcabas will pay $800,000, which includes $450,000 in victim restitution, $134,560 in unpaid taxes to the California Franchise Tax Bureau, $67,174 in fines and costs to Monterey County Housing and Community Development, $10,588 in costs to the Monterey County Environmental Health Bureau, $10,000 in workers' compensation fines, and $127,678 in civil penalties.
Investigators determined that the Ruvalcabas received over $1 million in cash rental payments from tenants between 2020 and 2022, which they failed to report on their tax returns. An auditor calculated that the unreported income resulted in $134,560 in evaded taxes.
Charleston, South Carolina: A man living in the Charleston area when he provided false tax information to the state and obtained money by fraud will serve five years on probation once he completes a prison term in Georgia.
Michael Steven Edwards, 54, pleaded guilty to two of nine criminal charges filed against him in Charleston County in October 2021. As a condition of probation, he must repay the S.C. Department of Revenue $42,084.
Edwards was accused of submitting fraudulent tax forms from 2016 to 2020, collecting $42,084 that he should not have received.
Edwards is serving a 15-year prison term for multiple counts of identity fraud. He pleaded guilty to seven counts in December 2023, according to Georgia's Department of Corrections records.
Edwards was sentenced on Aug. 14.
Lansing, Michigan: Robin Young, 51, of Warren, pleaded guilty to one count of residential mortgage fraud exceeding $100,000, a 20-year felony, one count of using a computer to commit a crime, a 20-year felony, and one count of filing a false tax return, a five-year felony.
In 2024, Young e-filed a fraudulent 2023 Michigan tax return from Grosse Pointe Woods, falsely claiming a refund due of more than $374,000. Young knew the Department of Treasury did not owe her that amount, but she still used more than $100,000 of the illicit refund to purchase a home. During the mortgage lending process, Young lied about the source of the funds to lenders, saying the Department of Treasury owed her the money knowing it did not.
Young was also ordered to surrender a BMW she purchased with the illicit refund.
Young is scheduled to be sentenced on October 2.
