PDF - Department of the Treasury

The following cases are examples of
investigations of Lockbox fraud and other
external attempts to corrupt tax administration
conducted during this reporting period.
Two IRS Lockbox Employees Indicted
for Stealing Tax Payments in Georgia
Two individuals were indicted for bank
fraud, conspiracy, and aiding and abetting
in April 2005. The individuals were
employed at a Bank of America IRS
lockbox facility in Georgia and allegedly
stole money orders that were sent to the
lockbox by taxpayers to pay their Federal
income taxes. The individuals allegedly
forged their names on 23 money orders,
totaling more than $6,000, and negotiated
them at check-cashing facilities and U.S.
Postal Service offices.
Theft of Tax Remittance Checks
And Conspiracy at IRS Dallas
Lockbox Facility
On June 1, 2005, an individual was
sentenced for aiding and abetting theft of
Government property and illegal reentry
after deportation. Court documents state
the individual received tax remittance
checks valued at more than $175,220,
which were removed from the IRS Dallas
lockbox by a former contract employee, and
that he altered the payees and deposited
and/or attempted to deposit the checks into
bank accounts opened in the names of
innocent individuals or assumed names. On
July 28, 2004, he entered a plea of guilty to
the above charges, which included a charge
of illegal reentry after having been
previously deported from the United States
in 1998 for a similar type of conduct. As a
result of this investigation, the individual
was subsequently sentenced to eight years
in prison, three years’ supervised release,
and ordered to pay approximately $13,000
in restitution. Upon release from custody,
he will be turned over to U.S. Citizenship
and Immigration Services authorities for
possible deportation proceedings.
Additional Thefts of Tax Remittances at
Dallas Lockbox Under Investigations
In a separate investigation, an individual
was arrested in July 2005 for unlawfully
receiving, concealing, and retaining stolen
property of the United States. The criminal
complaint alleged that the individual
deposited two tax remittance checks
totaling $58,390 into two bank accounts she
opened at the same bank. The tax
remittance checks had been mailed to the
IRS Dallas lockbox by taxpayers.
Additional individuals were arrested in
July 2005 for crimes involving conspiracy
to commit bank fraud and theft of
Government property related to the Dallas
Lockbox. These criminal complaints alleged:
• A person arrested for theft of
Government property deposited a
$20,000 check into a bank account he
opened. The check had been mailed by
a taxpayer to the IRS Dallas lockbox as
a tax payment.
• Another person arrested for conspiracy
to commit bank fraud deposited a tax
remittance check in the amount of
$42,030 into a fraudulent bank account.
In furtherance of the fraudulent scheme, a
$15,800 counterfeit check was allegedly
created and drawn on the same bank
account as the tax remittance check and
then deposited into the fraudulent bank
account by an unknown individual.
30 April 1, 2005 to September 30, 2005