Man uses IDs from dead people to collect millions from IRS
Reuters – 1 hr 55 mins ago
CHICAGO
(Reuters) - A Barbados national who stole the identities of hundreds of
dead people in a scheme to collect more than $120 million in bogus tax refunds from the U.S. government was sentenced in federal court on Wednesday to 9-1/2 years in prison.
Andrew Watts, 35, pleaded guilty in July to one count of mail fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft.
Prosecutors said
Watts, a Barbados national who was in the United States legally, used
the stolen identities to file 645 false federal tax returns between 2007
and 2011 and to claim more than $120 million in tax refunds.
Watts received more
than $19 million in refund checks from the U.S. Treasury before the
Internal Revenue Service discovered the scam.
The vast majority
of the money was frozen in various accounts Watts controlled before he
could spend it. But according to court documents, Watts used more than
$1.6 million in refunds to rent apartments in New York, Beverly Hills
and Chicago, buy a Mercedes Benz SUV and jewelry, provide cash to his
girlfriend, and jet back and forth from California to New York.
On Wednesday, U.S.
District Judge Joan Gottschall sentenced Watts to 7-1/2 years in prison
for mail fraud and two years in prison for aggravated identity theft.
Gottschall also ordered Watts to pay nearly $1.7 million in restitution.The case is USA v. Watts, 11-CR-00231, U.S. District Court Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division.
(Reporting by James B. Kelleher; Editing by Greg McCune and Leslie Adler)
Ok, lets see, he steals 120 million and get to take a vacation at a federal prison with cable TV, a Gym, health benefits, 3 meals a day, a library, on and on,
Not too bad of a trade off.....probably could have been a little more careful not to have got caught.
Aaaah...a LEGAL Alien... that makes it alright.
ReplyDeleteLet me get this right... he received 19 million in
refund checks... the judge ordered him to return 1.7 million and now they are going to support him for 9 and a half years.... HELLS BELLS ! CRIME PAYS and it pays good!
watching my favorite soap opera from this side of the border.."As the Nation Crumbles".