El Paso Standard

A Florida woman has been sentenced to house arrest and ordered to pay over $3 million in restitution for wire and tax fraud. Feliciano Rodriguez, 47, from Orlando, was ordered on March 3 to pay $3,338,558 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) following a joint investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other agencies.

Rodriguez will also serve a five-year term of supervised release. A money judgment of $347,760 was entered against her as proceeds from the wire fraud.

"Fraudulent schemes that provide under-the-table cash payments ultimately exploit undocumented aliens for large profits," said Tim Hemker, ICE Homeland Security Investigations Jacksonville Assistant Special Agent in Charge. "ICE...will investigate those who engage in illegal practices and hold them accountable for their actions."

Court documents reveal Rodriguez created a shell company purportedly involved in construction. She obtained workers' compensation insurance under this shell company but then "rented" it out to work crews with subcontracts from various contractors. The certificates were falsely represented as proof of coverage required by law.

Contractors issued payroll checks for wages to these shell companies. Rodriguez cashed the checks, distributed the cash after deducting fees—about 6%—and avoided reporting wages or paying payroll taxes like Social Security and Medicare. Approximately $13 million in payroll checks were cashed during the scheme.

The operation also sidestepped higher costs associated with proper workers' compensation insurance for numerous crew members. The policy purchased by Rodriguez was based on an estimated payroll far below actual figures.

“Today’s sentence sends a clear message that off-the-books payroll schemes...will not be tolerated,” stated Ron Loecker, Special Agent in Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation's Tampa Field Office.

The case was investigated by ICE Jacksonville, IRS-CI, and the Florida Department of Financial Services, with prosecution led by Assistant U.S. Attorney John Cannizzaro.