Date: May 10, 2024 Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov BOSTON — A Brooklyn, N.Y. man was arrested today in connection with a scheme to steal over $3 million in COVID relief tax credits using the stolen identity of a corporate executive in New Jersey. Isaac Aaron Tenryk was charged with bank fraud and aggravated identity theft. Following an initial appearance in federal court in Boston earlier today, Tenryk was detained pending a hearing scheduled for May 16, 2024. According to the charging documents, Tenryk used a fraudulent driver’s license as well as the name and Social Security number of a corporate executive in New Jersey to open an account at a bank in Boston. He then allegedly deposited an approximately $3 million Employee Retention Tax Credit check payable to the executive’s company into the fraudulent account. The charge of bank fraud provides for a sentence of up to 30 years in prison, five years of supervised release and a fine of up to $1 million. The charge of aggravated identity theft provides for a mandatory two-years in prison in addition to any sentence imposed for bank fraud, one year of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case. Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy; Harry Chavis, Jr., Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (CI), Boston Field Office; and Ketty Larco Ward, Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Boston Division made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kriss Basil of the Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit is prosecuting the case. The details contained in the charging documents are allegations. The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.
