A man and woman in Ohio have been indicted on identity theft, conspiracy, money laundering and other charges for allegedly conspiring with others to swindle the U.S. government out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in an income tax refund fraud scheme, federal prosecutors in Ohio announced Tuesday. Jose Luis Martinez, 46, of Columbus, Ohio, and Mercedes Emelinda-Silie, 40, of Grove City, Ohio, committed their crimes between February 2010 and December 2012 with the help of accomplices in New York State, prosecutors said. Fraudulent tax returns were filed with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) seeking refunds in the names of Puerto Ricans whose identities had been stolen, the indictment states. The IRS mailed the refund checks to addresses in the Bronx and elsewhere in New York. Couriers delivered the bogus refund checks to Martinez and Emelinda-Silie, who deposited them into bank accounts they controlled in the names of two businesses, San Isidro Cargo and Grini's Salon, the
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