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Isaiah Aaron Tenryk

Defendant

ERC
Type
Person
Role
Defendant
Programs
ERC
Updated

The profile

A Brooklyn man who opened a Boston bank account in the stolen name of a New Jersey corporate executive and deposited that executive's company's Employee Retention Credit check, about $3 million. He was arrested when he came back to wire the money out, pleaded guilty, and was sentenced in December 2024 to three years; his co-conspirator Linval Jackson got four.

Identity and role

Isaiah Aaron Tenryk, 28, of Brooklyn, New York, was prosecuted in the District of Massachusetts by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Boston after an investigation by IRS Criminal Investigation and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. One release gives his first name as Isaac. His co-defendant, Linval Jackson, 32 when arrested and 34 when sentenced, is from Queens.

The case and pandemic-relief role

The Employee Retention Credit (ERC) was often paid as a paper Treasury check mailed to the employer, and a check is only as safe as the account it lands in. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Tenryk used a fraudulent driver's license with the name and Social Security number of a corporate executive in New Jersey to open an account at a bank in Boston, then deposited an ERC check for about $3 million payable to the executive's company. Jackson tried to link the account to other accounts he controlled to move the money. Over the next days the co-conspirators "tried unsuccessfully to transfer the funds out of the account," and Tenryk "was arrested when he returned to the bank to attempt to wire money out of the account."

The releases say nothing about whether the company's ERC claim was valid; the victim in this case is the business whose refund was stolen.

  • Tenryk: arrested and charged by complaint May 10, 2024 with bank fraud and aggravated identity theft; pleaded guilty September 4, 2024; sentenced December 12, 2024 by U.S. District Judge Denise J. Casper to three years in prison and three years of supervised release.
  • Jackson: arrested in Connecticut on a complaint in July 2024; pleaded guilty October 15, 2025 to conspiracy to commit bank fraud, bank fraud and aggravated identity theft; sentenced January 28, 2026 by Chief Judge Casper to four years in prison and three years of supervised release.

Where they are now (2025–2026)

The January 2026 release on Jackson's sentence is the last public record of the case we found. The releases give no restitution figure.

Sources

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