The Florida Office of Financial Regulation today announced that Weguel Legentus was sentenced to 33 months in prison to be followed by three years of probation. Legentus pled guilty in December 2017, to charges of conspiring to defraud the government and filing fraudulent claims.
Commissioner Drew J. Breakspear said, “The Florida Office of Financial Regulation will continue to work tirelessly with our state and federal partners to bring financial criminals to justice. I thank our investigative team, the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation team, the Margate Police Department and the Broward County Sheriff’s Office for their hard work in this case.”
Legentus, along with co-conspirator Chantale Baptiste, operated a tax preparation business, CMB Financial Group, Inc., with offices in Broward and Palm Beach counties. They provided clients with copies of their prepared tax returns, while falsely submitting an altered copy of the return, with inflated figures, to the Internal Revenue Service. The resulting tax refund was cashed, and transferred into bank accounts controlled by Legentus and Baptiste. The duo would either retain the full amount for their personal use, or provide clients with a portion of the refund and pocket the remainder. Approximately $6 million was stolen by Legentus and Baptiste in this fraud scheme.
