Media Articles
5 Indicted in Tax Refund Scheme
News Release: Dept. of Justice October 15, 2014 TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Five defendants have been charged with conspiring to commit wire fraud in connection with the filing of false income tax returns. The 21-count indictment, unsealed today, also charges substantive counts of wire fraud, theft of government funds, and aggravated…
Florida Correctional Officer Sentenced to Prison for Tax Fraud Using Inmates’ Identities
U.S. Attorney’s Office, October 02, 2014 Middle District of Florida (813) 274-6000 TAMPA, FL—U.S. District Judge James S. Moody, Jr. has sentenced Jerry St. Fleur (26, Tampa) to four years and three months in federal prison for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. The Court also ordered him to forfeit…
Biggest IRS Scam Around: Identity Tax Refund Fraud
CBS – 60 Minutes: September 21, 2014 Con artists have been filing bogus tax returns and collecting millions. Steve Kroft finds out how far the scam has gone and why the IRS hasn’t been able to stop it. Read full article
Identity Theft: Additional Actions Could Help IRS Combat the Large, Evolving Threat of Refund Fraud
GAO-14-633: Published: Aug 20, 2014. Publicly Released: September 22, 2014 What GAO Found Based on preliminary analysis, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) estimates it paid $5.2 billion in fraudulent identity theft (IDT) refunds in filing season 2013, while preventing $24.2 billion (based on what it could detect). The full extent is…
GAO: Action Needed to Combat $5 Billion Tax Refund Fraud
New Report Calls on IRS to Implement Stronger Safeguards to Protect Private Taxpayer Information Sarah Swinehart, September 22 WASHINGTON – The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) must take bold and innovative action to combat more than $5 billion in fraudulent identity theft tax refunds, according to a new report by the…
Congress Cracking Down on Tax-Refund Fraud
SUN SENTINEL AND ORLANDO SENTINEL By William E. Gibson, Washington Bureau WASHINGTON — Congress is moving to crack down on tax-return fraud, a form of identity theft that has exploded across Florida in recent years. The House passed a bill this week introduced by U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz that…
FBI Warns: Fake Tax Returns Soaring
By MITCH LIPKA CBS NEWS July 10, 2014 The FBI’s online fraud site, the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), issued an alert on Thursday that complaints from victims about phony tax returns being filed using their information doubled from 2013 to this year. "Some complainants reported that before filing their 2013 taxes,…
Two More Defendants Sentenced in Stolen Identity Tax Refund Scheme Resulting in Millions of Dollars in Fraudulent Activity
U.S. Attorney’s Office July 07, 2014 Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Ronald A. Cimino of the Justice Department’s Tax Division, Donnell Young, Acting Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), George L. Piro, Special Agent in…
IRS Slow to Respond to Rubio’s Concerns About Identity Theft
Identity theft up 1,200 percent since 2008 BY: Elizabeth Harrington June 25, 2014 The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has taken months to respond to concerns about identify theft, which has grown more than 1,200 percent since 2008, and ignored a letter sent by Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) asking how successful…
Doctors victimized in ID theft fraud
By DAVE COLLINS Associated Press HARTFORD — Many doctors and other health care professionals nationwide have been victimized this year by identity theft used to fraudulently obtain federal and state tax refunds — and their numbers are growing, medical industry and government officials say. The number of doctors, dentists and…
Letter from 37 Congressmen to the IRS
On April 15, 2014, 37 congressmen and congresswomen sent an important letter to John Koskinen, Commissioner of Internal Revenue. In the letter, the growing problem of identity theft-related tax fraud was outlined, citing over 640,000 cases on 2012. Read Letter >>
Tampa Woman Sentenced to More Than Six Years in Prison for Tax Fraud
U.S. Attorney’s Office April 24, 2014 TAMPA—U.S. District Judge Elizabeth A. Kovachevich today sentenced Tiki Simone Dennis to six years and two months in federal prison for tax fraud and aggravated identity theft. The court also ordered Dennis to pay $222,767.00 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service. As part…
