There’s a follow-up to the case of a former employee at the James A. Haley VA Medical Center who stole veterans’ personal information to obtain crack cocaine. The information was used by others for tax refund fraud. Lewis was indicted in July 2013.
U.S. District Judge Virginia M. Hernandez-Covington sentenced David F. Lewis to 6 years in federal prison for access device fraud and aggravated identity theft. As part of his sentence, the court also entered a money judgment in the amount of $105,271.00, the proceeds of the charged criminal conduct. Lewis pleaded guilty on December 10, 2013.
According to court documents and testimony presented in court, Lewis was an employee at the Tampa VA Medical Center. On at least five different dates in 2012, Lewis accessed and printed the personal information, including names, social security numbers, and medical information, of over 100 veterans who were in-patients at the Tampa VA Medical Center. Lewis then gave these documents to someone else in exchange for crack cocaine, knowing that the veterans’ information would be used by others to file fraudulent tax returns in order to fraudulently obtain tax refunds, and in at least one instance, to apply for lines of credit in the veteran’s name. The Department of Veterans Affairs is paying for credit monitoring for those victims known to be affected by Lewis’ theft.
SOURCE: U.S. Attorney’s Office, Middle District of Florida