Former RCSD Sentenced for Allegedly Selling Counterfeit Purses, Rolex Watches

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WOLO) – A former Richland County Sheriff’s Deputy will spend time behind bars for her role in multiple fraud schemes, authorities say.

United State Attorney Bill Nettles said Maribel Crespo, 40 was sentenced to 12 months and one day imprisonment for trafficking in counterfeit goods, impersonating a federal agent and tax fraud.

According to information presented during her guilty plea, Crespo sold counterfeit luxury goods including fake Michael Kors handbags and Rolex watches over the internet, officials said in a release.

Additionally, Crespo posed as an officer of the Department of Homeland Security to defraud undocumented aliens by charging them thousands of dollars for counterfeit immigration paperwork, officials said.

Crespo also entered a guilty plea for preparing fraudulent tax returns for other former Richland County Sheriff’s Deputies by adding false and fictitious information to the returns.

Crespo allegedly would attach children’s information to the returns so that she could claim them as false dependents in an effort to artificially inflate the amount of the tax returns.

The children used were typically citizen children of non-citizen Hispanics in the Columbia area, officials said.

Officials say Crespo would forward a part the tax return to the parents of the dependent, some to herself and the remainder to the tax filer.

Based on IRS calculations, Crespo caused over $100,000 in loss to the Treasury based on the fraudulent returns.