Five Individuals Charged with Filing False Tax Returns and Related Crimes as part of Stolen Identity Refund Fraud Initiative

Thursday, October 17th, 2013 @ 9:03PM

September 16, 2013

BATON ROUGE, LA – Acting United States Attorney Walt Green announced the filing of criminal charges against five (5) individuals accused of committing tax fraud, identity theft, and related crimes in the Baton Rouge area. Collectively, these five individuals are alleged to have submitted more than 1,000 fraudulent federal income tax returns, fraudulently claiming refunds totaling more than $1.4 million. The charges are the result of an initiative by the United States Attorney’s Office, the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigations Division, and the United States Department of Justice’s Tax Division, to combat stolen identity refund fraud and other tax fraud schemes.

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Posted by cfegov
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What is the Identity Theft Tax Refund Fraud Problem?

In general, tax-related identity theft occurs when an individual intentionally uses the Social Security number (SSN) of another person to file a false tax return with the intention of obtaining an unauthorized refund. Identity theft wreaks havoc on our tax system in many ways. Victims of identity theft not only must deal with the aftermath of an emotionally draining crime, but may also have to deal with the IRS for years to untangle the resulting tax account problems. Identity theft also impacts the public fisc, as Treasury funds are diverted to pay out improper refunds claimed by opportunistic perpetrators. In addition, identity theft takes a significant toll on the IRS, tying up limited resources that it could otherwise shift to taxpayer service or compliance initiatives