{"id":255985,"date":"2023-01-26T18:28:06","date_gmt":"2023-01-27T00:28:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=255985"},"modified":"2023-01-26T18:51:50","modified_gmt":"2023-01-27T00:51:50","slug":"new-mexico-tax-inspector-stole-1-2m-from-taxpayers-to-gamble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/new-mexico-tax-inspector-stole-1-2m-from-taxpayers-to-gamble\/","title":{"rendered":"New Mexico Tax Inspector Stole $1.2M from Public to Gamble"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former New Mexico<\/a> tax investigator was sentenced to eight years in prison Wednesday for stealing an estimated $1.2 million from state taxpayers, The Albuquerque Journal<\/em> reports.<\/p>\n

\"New
George Martinez, not pictured, was a high-ranking tax inspector for the NMTRD. But he used his knowledge of the system to steal and gamble away millions, prosecutors said. (Image: Andrey Popov)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

George Martinez had \u201clittle to show for living a life subsidized by fraud,\u201d Assistant US Attorney Jeremy Pe\u00f1a said, because he largely spent the money at local casinos.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Martinez, 46, was a bureau chief of the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department (NMTRD), leading a unit that examined questionable refunds. He pleaded guilty on Wednesday to more than 90 counts of wire fraud, money laundering, and identity theft, which related to some questionable refunds of his own devising.<\/p>\n

Concealed Transactions<\/strong><\/h2>\n

From 2009 to 2018, Martinez created and issued numerous fraudulent tax refunds, funeling money into at least six different bank accounts that he himself controlled, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n

By altering social security numbers on tax returns and refunds, Martinez was able to process multiple payments under a single taxpayer\u2019s Social Security number, while concealing the transactions within the NMTRD’s computer systems.<\/p>\n

He used the Social Security numbers of 11 individuals, including his mother and twin brother. Seven were deceased, another had dementia, according to court documents.<\/p>\n

He was very familiar with the types of refunds that would trigger a red flag by the automated software that would do audits,\u201d <\/strong>Pe\u00f1a said at a Wednesday news conference. \u201cAnd it was eventually after many years of doing the conduct that there was an internal review that reviewed those safeguards and found his activity.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Following that review, in 2018, the department contacted the FBI. Martinez left his job shortly afterwards. He was arrested in March 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe services that the people of New Mexico deserve are funded by that system of tax collection and so we will aggressively protect your tax dollars from fraud, especially when driven by the greed of a corrupt government official,\u201d said Alex Uballez, US Attorney for the District of New Mexico.<\/p>\n

Safeguards Bolstered<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The NMTRD believes it has since plugged the holes that allowed Martinez to game the system for so many years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe safeguards did improve, and that\u2019s how he was eventually tripped up,\u201d Pe\u00f1a said. \u201cSo, his patterns have been understood. The exact methods by which he was assigning refunds to himself are now well known. And they know what to look for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martinez will be ordered to pay more than $1.2 million in restitution to the state of New Mexico, as well as a $690,000 judgment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A former New Mexico tax investigator was sentenced to eight years in prison Wednesday for stealing an estimated $1.2 million from state taxpayers, The Albuquerque Journal reports. George Martinez had \u201clittle to show for living a life subsidized by fraud,\u201d Assistant US Attorney Jeremy Pe\u00f1a said, because he largely spent the money at local casinos.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":255986,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[84745,84744],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nNew Mexico Tax Inspector Stole $1.2M from Taxpayers to Gamble<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"George Martinez, New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department inspector, funneled $1.2 million into accounts he controled.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New Mexico Tax Inspector Stole $1.2M from Taxpayers to Gamble\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"George Martinez, New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department inspector, funneled $1.2 million into accounts he controled.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/new-mexico-tax-inspector-stole-1-2m-from-taxpayers-to-gamble\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-01-27T00:28:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-01-27T00:51:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/TAX2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"550\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/new-mexico-tax-inspector-stole-1-2m-from-taxpayers-to-gamble\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/new-mexico-tax-inspector-stole-1-2m-from-taxpayers-to-gamble\/\",\"name\":\"New Mexico Tax Inspector Stole $1.2M from Taxpayers to Gamble\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/new-mexico-tax-inspector-stole-1-2m-from-taxpayers-to-gamble\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/new-mexico-tax-inspector-stole-1-2m-from-taxpayers-to-gamble\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/TAX2.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-01-27T00:28:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-01-27T00:51:50+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"George Martinez, New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department inspector, funneled $1.2 million into accounts he controled.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/new-mexico-tax-inspector-stole-1-2m-from-taxpayers-to-gamble\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/new-mexico-tax-inspector-stole-1-2m-from-taxpayers-to-gamble\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/new-mexico-tax-inspector-stole-1-2m-from-taxpayers-to-gamble\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/TAX2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/TAX2.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":550,\"caption\":\"George Martinez, not pictured, was a high-ranking tax inspector for the NMTRD. 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