By Rudy Miller
The Express-Times
(TNS)
March 9 — Before Jessenia Cordero finished serving her prison term for a $4.3 million in a tax fraud scheme, the wheels were in motion for her next scheme, federal authorities allege in court records.
The new scheme to defraud the federal government of COVID relief funds and tax returns has netted the Allentown, PA, woman and her husband an additional $5.5 million, records say.
She’s accused of participating in the new scheme with her husband, Allentown resident Jose Baez. It started shortly before she was released from her four-year federal prison sentence, records say.
Baez and Cordero’s attorneys didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Court records say the couple’s mail and wire fraud schemes started on May 26, 2020. Cordero started her supervised release from prison on June 11, 2020.
They’re accused of stealing identities to file 316 fraudulent federal tax returns; filing another 674 false tax returns with the help of two more conspirators; and filing 168 fraudulent pandemic-related unemployment claims, according to a news release from 2023 and court records.
They were accused at that time of stealing a combined $3.8 million. A superseding indictment filed in October 2024 now puts that figure at $5.5 million.
One of their conspirators, Mayerlyn Cordero of Allentown, was indicted Feb. 19. She’s accused of scheming with Baez and Jessenia Cordero to steal $1 million in COVID funds by submitting 13 false applications from June 2020 through January 2021, court records say.
Baez and his wife allegedly ran the scheme through their tax preparation service, JB Multiservices on North Eighth Street in Allentown, court records say.
Baez and Jessenia Cordero each have plea documents docketed in their cases, but those documents are sealed so it’s unclear what charges each has pleaded guilty to. Their sentencing hearings are scheduled for June.
Each is charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, two counts of conspiracy to file false claims, aggravated identity theft, and conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft.
Jessenia Cordero pleaded guilty in 2017 to criminal conspiracy for filing fake federal tax returns using stolen Social Security numbers to net more than $4.3 million, then served her four-year sentence.
Mayerlyn Cordero is charged with five counts of wire fraud and a single count of conspiracy to file false claims. She was picked up in Florida on Feb. 26 and ordered to appear for an arraignment in federal court in Allentown on March 19.
Photo credit: Mawardibahar/iStock
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