Florida Man Sentenced In Fraud Case

United States Attorney Brendan V. Johnson announced that a Temple Terrace, Florida, man convicted of Conspiracy to Defraud the United States and Aggravated Identity Theft was sentenced on December 29, 2014, by U.S. District Judge Karen E. Schreier.

Jeremy Jamar Blount, age 26, was sentenced to 21 months in prison on the conspiracy charge and 24 months on the identity theft charge, to be served consecutively.  Upon release from prison he will be on supervised release for 3 years.  Blount was also ordered to make restitution to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the identity theft victims in the amount of $421,116.

Blount and 10 others were indicted on the above charges by a federal grand jury on May 8, 2013.  Blount pled guilty on October 6, 2014.

Several of Blount’s co-defendants attended the University of South Dakota in Vermillion and are former members of the football team.

Blount was involved in a scheme to defraud the United States by using personal identifying information, including names, Social Security numbers, and dates of birth, of other individuals to file bogus income tax returns showing tax refunds due.  The requested refunds totaled approximately $1 million, and the IRS paid fraudulent claims of over $400,000 before the fraud came to light. 

As his part in the conspiracy, Blount provided co-conspirators with stolen identities and addresses that were used to receive refunds, knowing that the information was being used in the scheme to receive fraudulent tax refunds in the mail.  He also exchanged stolen identities, including names, Social Security numbers, and dates of birth, via text messages with co-conspirators, again knowing that the information was being used in the scheme to receive fraudulent tax refunds in the mail.

This case was investigated by the Vermillion Police Department, the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation, and the IRS Criminal Investigation Division.  Assistant U.S. Attorney John E. Haak prosecuted the case.

Blount was ordered to surrender to the U.S. Marshals Service by noon on January 20, 2015.