A volunteer at the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital has been accused of stealing patients’ identities and using that information to file fake income tax refunds of about $550,000, according to federal court documents.
Ricardo Jacinto Rodriguez, the VA volunteer, and Andropolis Jioberiti Mitchell were indicted last week on charges of embezzlement and fraud.
The scheme began on Jan. 25, 2012, when Rodriguez stole about 100 patients’ names and Social Security numbers from the official records of the VA hospital in Tampa, court documents said.
Read more on TBO. This is not the first time someone at Haley has been charged with stealing patient information for a tax refund fraud scheme. In July of this year, I noted another case that appears to be unrelated to this one.