Feds charge 40 in ID theft-tax fraud takedown in South Florida
BY JAY WEAVER JWEAVER@MIAMIHERALD.COM
Federal authorities Wednesday escalated their assault on the double-barreled crime of identity theft and tax fraud, arresting 30 South Florida suspects — including a Miami Gardens man facing a murder trial — on charges of filing fake returns totaling millions of dollars.
Prosecutors in Miami unveiled charges against a total of 40 defendants accused of stealing the personal information of roughly 54,000 people and using it to file fraudulent income-tax refund claims with the Internal Revenue Service.
One defendant obtained the Social Security numbers of 26,000 people by searching a public database, according to court records. A separate group of defendants filed phony returns in the names of 5,000 people — nearly all of whom were dead — and received $6 million in IRS refunds.
“Identity theft and tax-refund scams are nothing less than a tsunami of fraud that is barreling toward us,” U.S. Attorney Wifredo Ferrer said at a news conference, pointing out that gang members, drug traffickers and violent criminals have become the face of “one of the fastest-growing and most pervasive problems in the United States.”
Among those arrested Wednesday: Lineten “Link” Belizaire, who was charged in August with the Lauderdale Lakes killings of two women and a baby. He had been out on bond awaiting trial in Broward County.
Belizaire, 21, of Miami Gardens, has pleaded not guilty in the January shooting deaths of Octavia Barnett, 21; Barnett’s roommate, Natasha Plummer, 25; and Plummer’s 6-month-old boy, Carlton Stringer Jr.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/10/10/3043120/fbi-arrests-dozens-in-id-theft.html#storylink=cpy
