The Internal Revenue Service and the Justice Department said Tuesday they have conducted a massive nationwide sweep to nab identity theft fraudsters as part of a stepped-up effort against tax refund fraud.
The IRS has come under increasing pressure to crack down on identity theft and this tax season it announced it was taking additional measures, including new filtering systems that have apparently slowed down tax refunds for those who filed early in the tax season.
Working with the Justice Department’s Tax Division and local U.S. Attorneys’ offices, the nationwide effort targeted 105 people in 23 states. The coast-to-coast initiative took place over the past week and included indictments, arrests and the execution of search warrants involving the potential theft of thousands of identities and taxpayer refunds.
In all, 939 criminal charges are included in the 69 indictments and information filings related to identity theft. The actions included 80 complaints, indictments and information filings, 58 arrests, 19 search warrants, 10 guilty pleas and four instances of sentencing
