Source: Office of United States Attorneys
Robert Rahrle Operated a Fake Business Purporting to Send Gift Baskets into Prisons
SYRACUSE, NEW YORK – Robert Rahrle, age 35, formerly of Florida and now residing in the Northern District of New York, was sentenced last week to 100 months’ imprisonment to be followed by 3 years of supervised release for wire fraud and tax evasion. United States Attorney John A. Sarcone III and Harry T. Chavis, Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Office, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), made the announcement.
As part of his previously entered guilty plea, Rahrle admitted that from 2017 through 2024, he ran a fraudulent online gift basket website called iCare Gifting Solutions LLC. iCare purported to cater to families of incarcerated individuals, promising to send care packages into prisons. iCare charged hundreds of customers approximately $50 per gift basket but never sent the gift packages.
In addition to defrauding iCare’s customers, Rahrle evaded his federal taxes. He self-prepared and filed tax returns for tax years 2017 and 2018 that falsely reported business losses and failed to report hundreds of thousands of dollars of gross receipts.
Senior United States District Judge Glenn T. Suddaby also ordered Rahrle to pay a $2,000,000 money judgment and $178,651 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service with restitution to the individual victims of Rahrle’s fraud offense to be determined at a later date.
U.S. Attorney Sarcone said: “Driven by greed, Rahrle operated a years’ long fraud scheme scamming people out of millions of dollars. For that he will pay a high price a spend the next 8 years in federal prison. My office will vigorously pursue consumer scam artists like the defendant to protect the public and the public fisc.”
“Mr. Rahrle took advantage of those who wanted to help others and literally did not deliver what was promised. While care packages were left unsent, he pocketed the money with little regard of the consequences. This sentence sees to it that Mr. Rahrle will spend a lot of time behind bars, and perhaps he’ll learn firsthand the potential value of a legitimate care package business,” said Harry T. Chavis, Special Agent in Charge of IRS-CI New York.
This case was investigated by IRS-CI, the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), and the Criminal Investigation Division of the U.S. Secret Service. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Michael D. Gadarian.