Data Breach Triggered 2,000-Plus Fake Tax Returns

By Katherine Skiba   En español Published January 10, 2020

A 34-year-old St. Louis man who used stolen identities to file more than 2,000 fake tax returns seeking $12 million in refunds was sentenced Thursday to four years in prison, the Department

of Justice (DOJ) said.

As the Jan. 27 opening of the tax-filing season nears, officials said the criminal case is a reminder to file your forms early, so a crook can't file them first.

The defendant accessed information from a payroll-company data breach that divulged the sensitive information of hundreds of people, including Alabama and Mississippi public school

employees, officials said.

Names, dates of birth and Social Security numbers were compromised, according to a grand jury indictment.

The defendant, Babatunde Olusegun Taiwo, was part of a ring of criminals who arranged for the tax refunds to be mailed to their St. Louis homes.

The fake returns claimed more than $12 million in refunds. The IRS paid out nearly $890,000, and the judge ordered Taiwo to pay restitution for that sum.

The defendant filed the fake returns from 2015 to 2017 using the electronic numbers the IRS assigned to authorized tax preparers.

When somebody has filed a fake return with your Social Security number, the electronic filing system is going to reject your return. “Obviously, the sooner a taxpayer files a return, the

harder it'll be for a thief to use their Social Security number for tax purposes,” IRS spokeswoman Alejandra Castro said Friday.

Discussing the St. Louis case, Thomas Holloman, the special agent in charge of the Atlanta field office of the IRS Criminal Division, said the sentencing reflects how seriously law

enforcement regards identity theft.

"We will continue to pursue criminals who prey on innocent victims, and we will continue to enforce our nation's tax laws,” he said.

The four-year sentence, Holloman added, “should send a clear message to would-be criminals — you will be caught, and you will be punished.”

According to the IRS, you should be alert to possible tax-related identity theft if: