10 indicted in scheme to steal confidential tax, financial and medical data
Thursday, December 06, 2007
Ten people have been indicted on federal charges of trying to illegally obtain confidential information on more than 12,000 citizens across the country.
The federal indictment, unsealed today
The year-long investigation dubbed, "Operation Dialing for Dollars," also revealed that some of the individuals posed as representatives of doctors' offices to get medical or pharmacy records.
Variety of charges: All 10 defendants are charged with Conspiracy and Wire Fraud and with Aggravated Identity Theft. Seven are charged with Fraudulent Elicitation of Social Security Administration information. Six are charged with Solicitation of Federal Tax Information.
According to a release issued by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration's office, the defendants include Emilio and Brandy Torrella, owners of BNT Investigations, and the company's office manager, Steven W. Berwick. All are from Belfair, Wash., and are scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Tacoma later today.
The seven non-BNT employees named in the federal indictment as co-conspirators are private investigators from across the country: Victoria J. Tade of San Diego, Calif.; Megan Ososke of Beverton, Ore.; Esaun G. Pinto, Sr., and Patrick A. Bombino, both of Brookyn, N.Y.; and Houston, Texas, residents Darci P. Templeton, Robert Grieve and Ziad N. Sakhleh.
Federal officials say the private investigators had been hired by attorneys, insurance companies and collection agencies to look into the backgrounds of opposing parties, witnesses and benefit claimants, and to uncover assets or income. Among the information that was gathered were names, addresses, Social Security numbers and other personally identifying information, which, according to the indictment, was given to the Torrellas, who promoted their services to the PIs.
"Pretexters" at work: The Torrellas and their employees then allegedly called, under the pretext of being the people whose ID data they had, various government agencies, financial institutions, pharmacies and hospitals and asked for "their" personal records.
Federal lawmen say that from January 2004 to May 2007 a variety of strategies were employed to trick
government agencies into handing over information.
With the IRS, according to the charges, they would impersonate the taxpayer and ask for past tax returns, claiming that a bookkeeper was being investigated for embezzlement.
Some of the alleged pretext situations, according to the court documents, included occasions where individuals would claim to be a hospitalized taxpayer who needed tax returns to demonstrate to an ability to pay for necessary surgery.
Other times, the defendants allegedly claimed various hardships such as being a battered spouse or facing bankruptcy, foreclosure or serious illness. In one case, investigators said, the pretexter tried to claim she needed the information because a child had been abducted.
The Torrellas then forwarded all the information they obtained to the private investigators for fees ranging from $30 to $300 per record, according to the charges.
Potential jail time: Conspiracy is punishable by up to five years in prison.
Wire Fraud is
punishable by up to 20 years
Fraudulent Elicitation of Social Security Administration Information and Solicitation of Federal Tax Information are each punishable by up to five years in prison.
Aggravated Identify Theft is punishable by a mandatory two year term on top of any sentence on the underlying offenses.
The investigation involved agents from the Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, the Department of Labor Office of Inspector General, and the Washington State Employment Security Department Office of Special Investigations.
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