Wednesday, February 13th, 2019 @ 4:40AM

CFEG reports that on May 11, 2018, in a federal district court in the Western District of Arkansas, a former Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employee was sentenced and remanded to custody for aggravated identity theft and false representation of a Social Security Number (SSN). The IRS employee had been indicted for the offenses in July 2017, and pled guilty in January 2018. https://www.treasury.gov/tigta/oi_highlights.shtml

He was employed as a revenue agent by the IRS in Fayetteville, Arkansas, until January 2015, when he resigned. According to the indictment, in April 2015 and August 2015, he knowingly and with the intent to deceive, falsely represented two SSNs to be his own while applying for a loan and a bank account, respectively, when in fact neither of the SSNs was assigned to him. https://www.treasury.gov/tigta/oi_highlights.shtml

He admitted that he had obtained one of these SSNs during his employment with the IRS. Specifically, as part of his duties as a revenue agent, the IRS employee conducted an audit of a victim’s business. During the audit, the victim provided the IRS employee with a flash drive containing business records and personal identifying information. He admitted that he kept the flash drive after his resignation from the IRS and later retrieved the personal information from it. https://www.treasury.gov/tigta/oi_highlights.shtml

CreditSecure notified the victim that his identity had been compromised and that multiple credit accounts had been set up using his name, date of birth, and SSN. For example, the IRS employee had set up an account at Synchrony Bank using the victim’s SSN, but with a business name and billing address associated with himself. https://www.treasury.gov/tigta/oi_highlights.shtml

The IRS employee was sentenced to 52 months’ imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release. He was further ordered to pay restitution totaling $9,953.13. The IRS employee is appealing his sentence. https://www.treasury.gov/tigta/oi_highlights.shtml

Posted by cfegov
Categories: 2018 CRIMINAL CONVICTIONS OF IRS EMPLOYEES, Criminal Convictions of IRS Employees for 2018, IRS Employees Engage In Tax Refund Identity Fraud