BOSTON – A Lawrence woman was sentenced in federal court in Boston for using stolen identities of taxpayers and businesspeople to defraud the Internal Revenue Service, a bank, and the Small Business Administration.
According to the Massachusetts Department of Justice, 42-yea-old Luz Paulino was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns to 54 months in prison, four years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $37,056 in restitution to MetaBank and $456,300 to the Small Business Administration. In June 2024, Paulino pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud conspiracy, one count of bank fraud, two counts of wire fraud and two counts of aggravated identity theft.
Paulino was arrested in December 2020 and indicted by a federal grand jury in January 2021. While on pretrial release, Paulino fled the United States and remained a fugitive for 19 months. Panamanian authorities ultimately returned her to the United States, where she was arrested for a second time…