An insurance agent facing prison time for involvement in a $10.8 million IRS scam tried to scare off a witness with a little hocus pocus.
Mayra Edith Blair, 41, apparently placed the photograph of a former employee and key witness, Diana Oritz-Zarate, on an altar of Santa Muerte – also known as Saint Death.
Saint Death is a female folk saint said to provide healing, protection and safe delivery to the afterlife. In this case, however, Blair intended the saint to place a curse on Ortiz. Blair also plotted to smuggle Ortiz to Mexico, according to hearing testimony.
Blair pleaded guilty last week in US District Court to conspiracy to defraud the US and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The scam intended to rip off the IRS via Blair’s agency’s program to allow illegal immigrants to collect income tax refunds.
The two men who engineered the plot, illegal immigrant Amada Valdez-Morales and an unidentified Honduran, seized on a program in which undocumented workers are given individual tax identification numbers to file income taxes and collect refund checks.
Valdez and the other man obtained fake identification documents to obtain IRS tax identification numbers in the names of fictitious workers. Blair, who owned and operated Mayra Moreno Insurance Services, crafted the tax returns and directed her employees to do so also, using various credits to ensure big refunds. She then received a cut of the funds.
Ortiz, whom Blair attempted to intimidate, was a key witness to this plot.
Chief US District Judge Tom Varlan has set a sentencing hearing for October 12.
The plea agreement Blair entered into ensures a prison term, as it holds her accountable for as much as $3.5 million in fraudulent refunds. Under federal sentencing guidelines for such white-collar crimes, the amount of financial loss dictates whether time will be served.
