Holli Deal Bragg reports:
The last three of 13 federal defendants in a tax fraud and stolen identity scheme centered in Statesboro pleaded guilty last week.
Porsche Pinkney, Tidaesha V. Taylor and Gregory F. Smith entered guilty pleas as they stood before United States District Court Judge B. Avant Edenfield in federal court in Statesboro, according to the U.S. District Attorney’s Office.
Since March, 10 others involved in the tax and identity fraud scheme have pleaded guilty as well.
Earlier this year, the 13 were charged with federal crimes ranging from conspiracy to defraud the IRS to identity theft from medical records
Read more on Statesboro Herald. The notice of the original indictment can be found here, but none of the available records I reviewed indicate what entity had the medical records breach, other than it appeared to be an insider breach or insider breaches.
So who notified all those affected? And why should the covered entity not be publicly identified when other breached entities whose breaches don’t result in ID theft are identified? There’s something inequitable here. If breaches are a matter of public record (they can be obtained under FOI from HHS, with exemptions), they should be named in U.S. Attorney Office filings, too. To do otherwise is to possibly permit those who may have lax security to escape public awareness and potential reputation harm while those whose breaches are more benign take a hit.