Three men accused of orchestrating a $74 million tax refund fraud scheme out of North Georgia were arraigned Wednesday before Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge Justin S. Anand in Atlanta, and all three were in custody ahead of legal proceedings. Gustavo Rojano Salazar, 41, Gabriel Rojano Salazar, 49, and Andres Huerta Rendon, 43, are accused of using fake Mexican identification documents to obtain IRS taxpayer ID numbers, then filing hundreds of fraudulent tax returns beginning in January 2019.
A federal grand jury in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia returned the indictment, and prosecutors announced the charges, according to the Atlanta News First report. The U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia said the scheme generated more than 16,000 fraudulent refund checks, which the men allegedly laundered through a North Georgia check-cashing business to convert into bulk cash.
The scheme leaned on a legitimate federal tax tool twisted for criminal use. Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers, or ITINs, are tax processing numbers the Internal Revenue Service issues through Form W-7 so foreign nationals who don't qualify for Social Security numbers can still file returns. Prosecutors allege the defendants obtained these numbers using false identification in order to file the fraudulent returns.
Federal Charges and Immigration Allegations
All three defendants face charges of mail and wire fraud conspiracy, mail fraud, and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering. Gustavo Rojano Salazar and Gabriel Rojano Salazar face an additional charge each for allegedly making false statements on federal immigration forms, having denied any prior criminal activity when filling out immigration applications.
Mail and wire fraud conspiracy charges under federal law carry a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years in prison per count, while concealment money laundering conspiracy carries up to 20 years in prison along with fines reaching $500,000 or twice the laundered amount, according to legal guidance published by the Law Office of Vikas Bajaj. That exposure stacks up quickly across three men each facing multiple counts tied to a scheme investigators say spanned years.
Who Investigated the Case
The investigation was led jointly by IRS Criminal Investigation's Atlanta Field Office, under Acting Special Agent in Charge Maisha Horton, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service's Atlanta Division, under Inspector in Charge Rodney M. Hopkins.
The Atlanta case surfaced as part of a much larger federal push. The charges were announced as part of a nationwide Tax Enforcement Surge by the Department of Justice's Fraud Division and IRS-CI, which uncovered more than $490 million in tax fraud schemes across the country.
The scale of such schemes nationally is staggering. Tax fraud nationwide totaled $5.7 billion in 2022.
It remains unclear what role, if any, the North Georgia check-cashing business played beyond processing the refund checks, and whether additional defendants could face charges as the case moves through federal court. Ahead of legal proceedings, Rojano Salazar, Rojano Salazar, and Huerta Rendon were in custody.
