New York Man Arrested on Identity Theft and Tax Fraud Charges

Gary Rogers, of East Meadow, N.Y., was arrested today after being charged with identity theft and tax fraud after filing more than 200 false tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Justice Department and IRS announced.

Rogers was named in a federal criminal complaint that alleged he used stolen identification information to make false claims against the U.S. government by filing false tax returns to obtain fraudulent refunds. According to the affidavit in support of the criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, Rogers filed approximately 200 federal income tax returns from 2004 through 2010 using the identification information of others. The complaint alleges that Rogers sought approximately $4,393,356 in fraudulent refunds over the six year period.

“The Justice Department will remain vigilant in protecting Americans’ identities and tax dollars from thieves,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General John A. DiCicco of the Justice Department’s Tax Division. “Those who steal identities and use them to commit tax refund fraud will be punished to the full extent of the law.”

“The IRS is aggressively pursuing those who steal others’ identities in order to file false returns,” said Steven Miller, IRS Deputy Commissioner for Services and Enforcement. “Our cooperative work with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Tax Division will help protect taxpayers in New York from being victimized by identity theft. The IRS is taking additional steps this tax season to further prevent, detect and resolve identity theft cases as soon as possible.”

A criminal complaint is merely an allegation and a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. If convicted on these charges, Rogers faces a two year mandatory minimum sentence for aggravated identity theft, a potential maximum sentence of five years in prison for each count of filing a false claim against the United States and mail fraud.

The case was investigated by the IRS - Criminal Investigation and is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Mark Kotila and Andrew P. Young of the of Justice Department’s Tax Division.

Additional information about the Tax Division and its enforcement efforts may be found at www.justice.gov/tax.