On Tuesday, the Tax Division of the Department of Justice announced that a federal grand jury has charged an Atlanta-based IRS employee of stealing taxpayers’ personal identification information and filing fraudulent tax returns seeking refunds in their names. The incident is yet another example of how easily IRS employees can abuse their access to taxpayers’ sensitive information.
The case was brought before a grand jury in the Northern District of Georgia, which indicted IRS employee Stephanie Parker of “wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.” The DOJ provides some details of the case:
According to the indictment, since November 2010, Stephanie Parker of Atlanta, Georgia, worked at the IRS and had access to taxpayers’ personal identifying information, such as social security numbers and dates of birth. The indictment alleges that between September 2012 and April 2013, Parker exploited her IRS accesses to steal such personal information, which she then used to file tax returns seeking refunds in the names of other individuals. Parker allegedly directed the fraudulently obtained refunds into nominee bank accounts and used some of those funds to purchase money orders.
The crimes carry stiff penalties including up to 20 years in prison for each count of wire fraud and two years for each aggravated identity theft charge.
The DOJ stresses that an indictment is an allegation of the crime and Parker is presumed innocent until proven guilty, however it’s clear that the Tax Division feels confident in their investigation:
Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Goldberg and U.S. Attorney Horn commended special agents of IRS – Criminal Investigation and Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), who conducted the investigation, and Trial Attorneys Michael Boteler and Melanie Smith of the Tax Division, who are prosecuting this case.
The charges brought against Parker are the same charges that were brought in 2014 against the “identity theft ring” of IRS employees in the Fresno-area, which the DOJ reports “misused the personal information of approximately 250 victims and attempted fraudulent credit card charges of over $1.2 million.” The investigation resulted in cases against four former IRS employees, three of which have already been sentenced to multiple years in prison, and one of which is still to by tried. The DOJ provides a summary of the four cases:
Two Fresno residents, Daniel Miranda, 26, and Roberto Martinez Jr., 34, were sentenced today [Dec 7, 2015] for conspiring to commit mail fraud, bank fraud, and wire fraud, and for aggravated identity theft, United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced. Miranda was sentenced by Senior United States District Judge Anthony W. Ishii to seven years and 10 months in prison, and Martinez was sentenced to three years in prison.
According to court documents, from about June 2012 to January 2014, Miranda and Martinez, along with co-conspirators Lilliana Gonzales and Viririana Hernandez, obtained personal information from victims through various methods. Without the victims’ permission, they opened credit card accounts in the victims’ names or added themselves as “authorized users” of the victims’ existing accounts. The conspirators then used the accounts to buy goods and services at locations throughout the Fresno area, as well as in Modesto and in Riverside County. …
Hernandez previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy and aggravated ID theft, and was sentenced to four and a half years in prison on November 2, 2015. Gonzales previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy and aggravated ID theft, and is scheduled to be sentenced on January 11, 2016.
H/t HotAir