As an update to a case I’ve been following here and on phiprivacy.net:
Corey Means was sentenced yesterday to 20 months in prison and Melba Wilson to eight months home detention for their involvement in a million dollar identity theft tax scheme, the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service announced.
According to court documents, between October 2009 and April 2012, Antoinette Djonret and her co-conspirators used stolen identities to file over 1,000 false tax returns that fraudulently claimed over $1.7 million in tax refunds. Djonret orchestrated this scheme. She obtained stolen identities from multiple sources, including Alabama state databases. She also established an elaborate network for laundering the refund money. Djonret recruited Corey Means, Melba Wilson and others into the conspiracy. Melba Wilson and Corey Means recruited individuals to obtain prepaid debit cards and gave the cards to Djonret. Corey Means also provided addresses to Djonret for the purpose of receiving prepaid debit cards. The fraudulent tax refunds obtained by the conspiracy were directed to these prepaid debit cards and Djonret and her co-conspirators would then use the cards to obtain the proceeds. Djonret was previously sentenced to 144 months in prison for her role in this scheme and for other criminal conduct.
Source: Department of Justice
And no, we still haven’t been told which state databases were accessed.