The Internal Revenue Service has released the Top 10 Identity Theft Prosecutions for Fiscal Year 2015 to highlights its efforts to combat tax refund fraud and identity theft.
Richard Weber
“The IRS continues fighting identity theft on several fronts, including the Security Summit initiative where we have joined with the states and the nation’s tax industry to beef up prevention and detection of fraudulent returns,” said IRS Commissioner John Koskinen in a statement. “These efforts go hand-in-hand with our important Criminal Investigation work, where our agents continue working to bring identity thieves to justice across the nation.”
In addition, the IRS noted that it continues to promote its “Taxes. Security. Together” campaign, a joint effort between the IRS, states and the private-sector tax industry. The collaboration is designed to raise taxpayer awareness about taking simple steps on the Internet and their personal devices to protect the safety of their financial and tax data. The education campaign complements the expanded series of important new protections the IRS, states and tax industry put in place for the 2016 filing season to address tax-related identity theft.
“Identity theft has shifted from small-time thieves to multinational criminal enterprises that mine the internet for personal information that is stolen, collected and sold to other criminals,” said IRS Criminal Investigation chief Richard Weber. “IRS CI Special Agents are the best at unraveling the threads holding these schemes together. Along with our partners in the public and private financial sectors, we are dismantling these crooked enterprises and enforcing our nation’s tax laws.”
In fiscal year 2015, the IRS initiated 776 identity theft related investigations, which resulted in 774 sentencings through Criminal Investigation enforcement efforts. The courts continue to impose significant jail time with the average months to serve in FY 2015 at 38 months — the longest sentencing being over 27 years.
The summary of the following 10 identity theft cases in states including Alabama, Florida, Georgia and New Jersey is based on public information available in court cases:
Top 10 Identity Theft Cases
Tampa Tax Fraudster and Wife Sentenced in Massive Identity Theft Tax Fraud Scheme
On June 19, 2015, James Lee Cobb III, was sentenced to 324 months in prison, five years of supervised release and ordered to forfeit $1,820,759 in a money judgment and to pay restitution in the same amount. On June 30, 2015, Cobb’s wife, Eneshia Carlyle, was sentenced to 138 months in prison and three years of supervised release for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. In addition, Carlyle received a forfeiture money judgment in the amount of $1,820,759 and was ordered to pay restitution in the same amount. Cobb and Carlyle pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. In addition, Cobb pleaded guilty for being a felon in possession of a firearm as an armed career criminal. Cobb and Carlyle conspired with others to use stolen names, dates of birth and Social Security numbers to file false tax returns and open pre-paid debit cards. From 2011 through November 2013, Cobb and his co-conspirators filed false tax returns claiming approximately $3 million in refunds. During the execution of a search warrant at their residence, law enforcement officers recovered lists and medical records containing the personal identifying information of more than 7,000 victims. At the time of this offense, Cobb was on supervised release from a prior federal conviction.
Nine Defendants Sentenced in $24 Million Stolen Identity Tax Refund Fraud Ring
On Sept. 25, 2015, in Montgomery, Ala., Keisha Lanier, of Newnan, Ga., was sentenced to 180 months in prison, three years of supervised release and ordered to forfeit $5,811,406 for her role as the ringleader of a stolen identity tax refund fraud (SIRF) conspiracy. Between January 2011 and December 2013, Lanier and co-conspirator, Tracy Mitchell, led a large-scale identity theft ring that filed more than 9,000 false individual federal income tax returns that claimed more than $24 million in fraudulent claims for tax refunds. The IRS paid out close to $10 million in refunds on these fraudulent claims. The defendants obtained the stolen identities from various sources, including from the U.S. Army, several Alabama state agencies, a Georgia call center and employee records from a Georgia company. In order to file the false tax returns, the defendants obtained several IRS Electronic Filing Numbers in the names of sham tax businesses. The defendants directed the IRS to pay the anticipated tax refunds to prepaid debit cards, buy U.S. Treasury checks and to financial institutions, which in turn issued the tax refunds via prepaid debit cards or checks. When the refunds were sent through the financial institutions, the defendants simply printed out the refund checks from the check stock that had been sent to their homes. After the financial institutions stopped the defendants from printing out the tax refund checks, the defendants recruited U.S. Postal Service employees. The corrupt postal employees gave the defendants specific addresses along their postal routes for mailing the U.S. Treasury checks. Once the checks came to the address, the postal employees took the checks and turned them over to the defendants for a fee. The scheme also involved a complex money laundering operation. Almost $10 million in fraudulent tax refund checks were cashed at several businesses located in Alabama, Georgia and Kentucky. In Alabama on Aug. 7, 2015 eight residents of Alabama and Georgia were sentenced for their roles in the conspiracy:
• Tracy Mitchell was sentenced to 159 months in prison and ordered to pay a forfeiture judgment in the amount of $329,242, which was seized in cash from her residence;
• Talarius Paige was sentenced to 60 months in prison and ordered to pay $762,512 in restitution to the IRS;
• Mequetta Snell-Quick was sentenced to 24 months and one day in prison and ordered to pay $199,471 in restitution to the IRS;
• Latasha Mitchell was sentenced to 36 months in prison and ordered to pay $513,821 in restitution to the IRS;
• Dameisha Mitchell was sentenced to 65 months in prison and ordered to pay $440,176 in restitution to the IRS;
• Sharonda Johnson was sentenced to 24 months in prison and ordered to pay $440,176 in restitution to the IRS;
• Patrice Taylor was sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison and ordered to pay $28,783 in restitution to the IRS; and
• Cynthia Johnson was sentenced to two years of probation and ordered to pay $5,047 in restitution to the IRS.
Florida Man Sentenced for Stolen ID Theft Scheme, Obstruction of Justice
On Aug. 11, 2015, in Richmond, Va., Eddie Blanchard, of Miami, was sentenced to 204 months in prison, three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $568,625 in restitution for his role in a stolen identity tax refund fraud scheme. Blanchard participated in the Miami-based scheme with Ramoth Jean, Junior Jean Merilia and Jimmy Lord Calixte. The men travelled repeatedly to Richmond in the early part of 2012 and used stolen personal identifying information (PII) to file hundreds of fraudulent tax returns, utilizing online tax preparation programs. The men claimed significant refunds on the fraudulent returns and requested the refunds be placed on pre-paid debit cards, which were later mailed to Richmond addresses selected by the conspirators. The scheme began to unravel when a Virginia police officer encountered Jean removing a box containing stolen PII from a storage unit rented by the co-conspirators. Following Jean’s subsequent arrest, Blanchard convinced him to mislead federal investigators about the identity of his actual co-conspirators, going so far as to facilitate the creation of a fictional accomplice. Jean was sentenced on Jan. 9, 2014, to 114 months in prison and subsequently sentenced to an additional eight months on a separate contempt charge for his refusal to testify before the grand jury. Merilia was sentenced on June 19, 2015, to 133 months in prison for his role in the fraud scheme and the subsequent obstruction of justice. Calixte is currently a fugitive.
Ringleader and Conspirators Sentenced in Large-Scale Stolen Identity Refund Fraud Scheme
On July 21, 2015, in Newark, N.J., Julio C. Concepcion, of Passaic, was sentenced to 84 months in prison, three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $5,643,695 in restitution. Concepcion previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to theft of government funds. From at least October 2009 through May 2013, Concepcion and others participated in a conspiracy to obtain the personal identifying information of other individuals, including residents of Puerto Rico. Conspirators filed false and fraudulent income tax returns using the stolen information, which generated income tax refund checks. Concepcion then obtained fraudulent refund checks and recruited others to open bank accounts and deposit the checks, sometimes providing them with false identification in order to do so. Other conspirators were sentenced as follows: Concepcion’s two sons, Angel Concepcion-Vasquez and Julio Concepcion-Vasquez were each sentenced to 16 months in prison; Jose Zapata and Romy Quezada were sentenced to three years and two years of probation, respectively; and Reyes Flores-Perez was sentenced to 26 months in prison.