Karla A. Wilkerson, 26, of Miami, pled guilty yesterday to one count of possession of fifteen or more access devices, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1029(a)(3), and one count of aggravated identity theft, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1028A. Sentencing is scheduled for October 10, 2014. At sentencing, the defendant faces up to ten years in prison for the access device charge, and a mandatory term of two years in prison, consecutive to any other term in prison, for the aggravated identity theft charge.
According to court documents, in April 2013, law enforcement executed a search warrant on a residence associated with Wilkerson and found a variety of papers reflecting the personal identifying information (PII) — including names and social security numbers — of approximately 62 individuals, together with hand-written notations regarding the filing of fraudulent tax returns. The seized documents were processed for latent fingerprints. Approximately 156 latent fingerprints throughout the pages reflecting the PII of other individuals were positively matched as Wilkerson’s fingerprints. Additional investigation reflected fraudulent tax returns were filed using many of those 62 social security numbers. In total, Wilkerson is responsible for filing fraudulent tax returns in the amount of $118,522; however, not all of this money was paid by the Internal Revenue Service.
Court documents also state that when Wilkerson was arrested on May 29, 2014, she admitted she had filed fraudulent tax returns using other individuals’ names and social security numbers, which had been stolen from various places. She further admitted the 62 unique pieces of PII discovered in the residence belonged to her.
SOURCE: U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Florida
Would love to know how well the IRS’s new “anti-fraud”techniques in processing tax returns caught her fake returns…