A federal judge in Boston sentenced a 71-year-old Brockton woman to two months in prison on October 5 in the theft of a $931,000 U.S. Treasury tax refund check that was made out to someone else. Lana Ruel pleaded guilty in June to theft of government funds, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Massachusetts said on October 13. She also gets two months of supervised release.
The check was a Treasury refund issued to a healthcare company in Brooklyn, New York. The release’s headline puts it at $931,000, and its text calls it a nearly $1 million check. Prosecutors say Ruel set up a paper identity for that company in Massachusetts before she ever walked into a bank. The release does not say how the check came into her hands.
A Brooklyn company’s refund, a Massachusetts account in its name
Before she tried to deposit the check, Ruel incorporated a Massachusetts company and opened a bank account in the healthcare company’s name, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office release. Then she attempted the deposit. The bank froze her account afterward…