GREEN COVE SPRINGS, Fla. — A store owner from Green Cove Springs pleaded guilty to stealing tax refunds.
Abass Issa, 47, faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison.
He must also pay $1.9 million in restitution to the United States.
Issa ran V&J Stores Inc. in Green Cove Springs with Antoun Arbaji, who pleaded guilty last month.
Prosecutors said Issa received tax refund checks from a source in Tampa and would turn them over to people like Arbaji who would cash the checks through their business accounts.
Investigators said Arbaji cashed more than $1.5 million in tax refund checks and delivered proceeds to Issa, who funneled some of the cash to his source in Tampa.
The refund checks and refund anticipation loan checks contained the names of dead people.
WJAX
