2 men sentenced for bilking Iowa woman in IRS scam

MASON CITY, Iowa (AP) – Men from Texas and Alabama have been sentenced for posing as Internal Revenue Service agents and bilking a northern Iowa woman.

The Mason City Globe Gazette reports that 41-year-old Eduardo Cruz, of Grapevine, Texas, last week was sentenced to four days in jail. A $625 fine was suspended, and he was ordered to pay nearly $5,000 in restitution. He’d pleaded guilty to theft.

Co-defendant Coty Phillips, of Eufaula, Alabama, last month was sentenced to 85 days in jail and ordered to pay $69 in restitution.

Police say Phillips and Cruz had called the woman and threatened her with arrest if she didn’t pay them money they said she owed the government.