OAKLAND –A federal grand jury indicted Michael Johnson and Nicole Berry with conspiracy to file false claims, filing false claims, theft of public money, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and effecting fraudulent transactions with access devices. According to the indictment, between February 2012 and May 2012, Johnson and Berry, both from Pittsburg, California, conspired to…
Category: ID Theft
TX: Killeen Trio Sentenced to Federal Prison for Tax Refund Fraud Scheme
Three Killeen, TX, residents were sentenced to federal prison for their roles in a tax refund scheme with an estimated intended loss of $1.8 million. United States District Judge Lee Yeakel sentenced 34-year-old Albert Powell, 32-year-old Paris Stephens and 34-year-old Ronnie Cole to 54 months, 36 months and 18 months in federal prison, respectively. Judge Yeakel…
TX: Former Methodist Healthcare employee sentenced to more than 10 years; stole patient info for unemployment benefits
Guillermo Contreras reports on a case I don’t recall seeing before: A judge sentenced a former Methodist Healthcare worker to more than 10 years in federal prison Thursday for stealing patient identities and using the information to claim unemployment benefits. U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia ordered Andrea Nicole Brooks, 30, to serve 97 months for…
NJ: Tax preparer sentenced for selling clients’ personal information
Isaac Avilucea reports: Two-faced is the way a county prosecutor described city tax worker Lee Roberts II, who sold Mercer County residents’ personal information to a convicted felon and “known fraudster” turned cooperating witness for $200 in 2011. “He had a public face, and he had a private face,” Assistant Prosecutor James Scott said of…
Intuit lawsuit alleges firm facilitated fraud by lax security
Marisa Kendall reports: In a suit filed Monday against Intuit Inc., plaintiffs lawyers claim lax security protections in the company’s TurboTax software are to blame for a recent spike in fraudulent tax returns. Intuit didn’t take adequate steps to stop criminals from using TurboTax to steal customers’ personal information, file false returns on their behalf…
At long last, Congress passes law to strip Social Security numbers from Medicare cards
Robert Pear reports that although the federal government already prohibits private insurers using Social Security numbers on insurance cards when they provide benefits under contract with Medicare, Medicare itself has continued to issue new Medicare cards with Social Security numbers imprinted on them. And as anyone who hasn’t been asleep through the past decade knows, that’s been a recipe…