Federal prosecutors say a central New Jersey man has been sentenced to four years in prison for his role in one of the nation's largest and longest running stolen identity refund fraud schemes.
Manuel Rodriguez will also have to pay $5.2 million in restitution under the sentence imposed Friday. The 50-year-old New Brunswick man will also have to serve three years of supervised release once he's freed from prison.
Prosecutors say the scheme caused more than 8,000 fraudulent income tax returns to be filed, which sought more than $65 million in refunds. The scheme resulted in losses to the government of more than $12 million.
Rodriguez had pleaded guilty to a complaint charging him with conspiracy to defraud the United States, theft of government property and aggravated identity theft.
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