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Tampa has one of the highest incidences of tax fraud, mainly in the form of identity theft by thieves who steal other people’s identities to claim their tax refunds. Now the fight against such tax fraud has taken a positive turn as banks and credit unions are beginning to do their part to curtail the menace.
One bank in Tampa has reportedly handed over a list of 60,000 bank accounts it identified nationwide with suspicious tax refunds. The bank had withheld dubious refunds amounting to $164 million from being deposited into these accounts.
According to John Joyce, head of the Tampa Secret Service office, the local Suncoast Schools Federal Credit Union has been carrying out checks to identify suspicious deposits. Thus far, Sun Coast has been able to detect at least $750,000 in potentially fraudulent deposits since November last year.
The task of discovering suspicious bank accounts used by identity thieves becomes more difficult when bank employees work in cahoots with the fraudsters. Last Friday an arrest was made on a man in Polk County man accused of working with a teller at the Lakeland-based Mid-Florida Federal credit union, to deposit fraudulent tax refunds there. The man, Jermaine Lippett was charged with 16 counts of conspiracy, stealing from the federal government and aggravated identity theft. Lippett pleaded not guilty.
Lippett was alleged to have conspired with Whitley Ann Glover, who was arrested in Polk County in December on charges including forgery. Case records show that Glover was allegedly paid $200 by an anonymous person to deposit checks made out to people whose identity had been stolen, including one dead individual.
In March, another person, Nedal Ahmad was arrested on charges that he trafficked in fraudulently obtained US Treasury checks and deposited the proceeds into 184 bank accounts set up in the names of 149 identity theft victims. In this case, the accounts were set up in collaboration with an employee in Regions Bank who has since been arrested by the authorities at the Pasco County Sheriff’s office.
Joyce gave some tell-tale signs that banks should be on the lookout for, including individuals who deposit multiple Treasury checks in various names into a single account and multiple checks being sent by direct deposit into accounts.
Hillsborough County sheriff’s Cpl. Bruce Crumpler commented that initially the banks were ignorant about what was going on with these deposits. But as more of such cases came to light, the banks and credit unions began to be wary of such fraudulent practices and decided to do something about it.
But the fight against identity theft and tax fraud has not always been smooth sailing. Crumpler said, “Banks are customer service. I’ve found a reluctance in some of the financial institutions to challenge people that come in and want to deposit money in their bank.”
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