Queens man sentenced for bank fraud and identity theft

Date: Jan. 29, 2026

Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov

BOSTON – A Queens, N.Y. man was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Boston for a scheme to steal over $3 million in COVID relief tax credits using the stolen identity of a corporate executive in New Jersey.

Linval Jackson was sentenced by U.S. District Court Chief Judge Denise J. Casper to four years in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release. In October 2025, Jackson pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud; one count of bank fraud; and one count of aggravated identity theft. Jackson was arrested and charged in July 2024.

Jackson and his co-conspirator Isaiah Aaron 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 a bank account in Boston. Tenryk then deposited an approximately $3 million Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC) check payable to the executive’s company into the fraudulent account. ERTC is a refundable tax credit for certain eligible businesses that had employees and were adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

After the check was deposited, Jackson attempted to link the fraudulent account to other bank accounts he controlled to transfer the stolen money.

Tenryk pleaded guilty to bank fraud and identity theft in September 2024 and was sentenced to three years in prison in December 2024.

United States Attorney Leah B. Foley; Thomas Demeo, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, Boston Field Office; and Nicholas Bucciarelli, Acting Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Boston Division made the announcement. Assistant U.S. Attorney Elianna Nuzum of the Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit prosecuted the case.

IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) is the law enforcement 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. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a 90% federal conviction rate. The agency has 19 field offices located across the U.S. and 14 attaché posts abroad.