A Florida woman, Feliciano Rodriguez, age 47, has been sentenced to house arrest and is facing a hefty restitution bill topping $3 million for her role in a wide-ranging wire and tax fraud scheme. On Monday, a court ordered Rodriguez, from Orlando, to pay the Internal Revenue Service $3,338,558 and subjected her to a five-year term of supervised release. Additionally, the court slapped her with a money judgment amounting to $347,760 – the proceeds of her wire fraud enterprise – as reported by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements (ICE) .

As documented by the ICE, Rodriguez's operation involved a contrived company in the construction sector. Flaunting a workers' compensation insurance policy for a small group of sham employees, Rodriguez then "rented" the insurance to work crews tied up in projects throughout Florida and beyond. The contractors were falsely led to believe the work crews were covered and legitimate employees of her fabricated enterprise. Together with our law enforcement partners, abusing the documents, over the span of her scam, Rodriguez rented out certificates to numerous work crews, engaging in a profitable deception that betrayed the worker’s compensation carrier, chiefly employing many undocumented workers illegally.

In a statement obtained by ICE , Assistant Special Agent in Charge Tim Hemker said, "Fraudulent schemes that provide under-the-table cash payments ultimately exploit undocumented aliens for large profits and undermines the integrity of the industry, endangering both the workers and the system that’s meant to protect them." Hemker emphasized ICE's commitment to investigating illegal practices and ensuring perpetrators face justice.

The scheme also drove the avoidance of the pricier premiums for adequate workers' compensation insurance, for which many workers on the work crews hired by Rodriguez faced premium evasion. Despite the actual payroll nearing $5 million, Rodriguez purchased policies for fractions of the cost. Special Agent in Charge Ron Loecker, of the IRS Criminal Investigation Tampa Field Office, told ICE , "These schemes are violations of a number of serious federal criminal statutes including wire fraud and tax evasion." Loecker highlighted the damage such schemes cause to honest businesses and lawful workers, vowing continued partnership with Homeland Security Investigations to promote fair competition amongst employers.

The case against Rodriguez was spearheaded by ICE Jacksonville, IRS-CI, and the Florida Department of Financial Services, and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney John Cannizzaro. Her actions not only skirted the cost of accurate workers’ compensation insurance but also facilitated a tax evasion exceeding $3 million in payroll taxes.