A Honduran national living illegally in the United States has been sentenced to eight years in prison for his role in a multimillion-dollar payroll tax fraud scheme that cost the U.S. government tens of millions of dollars, the New York Post reported.Mario Flores was sentenced Wednesday after pleading guilty to a conspiracy that helped businesses avoid taxes and employ undocumented workers through an illegal cash system.Flores, along with his girlfriend and others, created shell companies in Orlando, Florida, that provided unlicensed cash courier and check cashing services to construction contractors and subcontractors.The plan allows the group to cash approximately $89 million in checks between 2015 and 2022, charging fees for services while not recording the business. The contractor then pays the workers in cash without withholding payroll taxes or complying with employment laws. Flores personally benefited at least $9.4 million from the program.His girlfriend, Iris Villafranca, was sentenced in April to 17 years in prison and ordered to pay more than $38 million in restitution. Two other co-conspirators, Ousmane Zapata and Francisco Alvarez, were also sentenced to four years in prison and probation, as well as financial penalties.Flores pleaded guilty in March to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and one count of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transfer business. Prosecutors accuse him of trying to hinder the investigation by providing false documents and misleading federal agents.The sentencing memorandum said Flores “attempted to deceive investigators by turning over “false receipt books to support false tax returns filed by shell companies with the IRS, and by producing these false receipt books in response to a grand jury subpoena.”It added that he also lied to investigators during interviews with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).“Villafranca messaged Flores multiple times before Flores met with IRS agents. He then lied to agents about his and Villafranca’s roles in the scheme. “Officials said the operation was a clear example of how illegal financial networks operate alongside the undocumented labor system.“This case exposes how uncontrolled illegal immigration fuels widespread payroll tax fraud and an underground economy that harms American workers and taxpayers,” Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division said in a statement.
