14 DAY TRIAL // Fake tax filings have become a regular thing these days, with some groups of individuals providing documents for millions of dollars in refunds from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Most of the times, the identity thieves work with people that have access to personally identifiable information (PII), which includes social security numbers.
However, sometimes the dangerous factor is inside the organization. On Monday, a former employee of the tax agency’s office in St. Louis pleaded guilty to filing more than 356 false tax returns.
The former IRS worker, 38-year-old Demetria Michele Brown, stole names, birth dates and social security numbers, and provided false information about wages, deductions, addresses and workplaces in order to obtain the refunds.
The documents were filed from her computer and the money returned by the IRS was sent to bank accounts controlled by Brown, St. Louis newspaper reports.
According to prosecutors, the fraudster carried out the activity from 2008 until 2011 and collected $326,000 / €290,000. In total, she filed 120 federal tax returns and 236 Missouri tax returns.
Although the woman worked for the IRS, it is unclear if the sensitive data was collected directly from the system or from a different source. The penalty associated with the charges is at least two years in prison for fraud and another two for identity theft accusations, when sentenced.