Miami Resident Sentenced in Identity Theft Tax Fraud Scheme Involving Medical Patients’ Personal Identifying Information

A Miami resident was sentenced to 16 months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release, and was ordered to pay joint and several restitution of $57,000.

Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Kelly R. Jackson, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), and Paula Reid, Special Agent in Charge, United States Secret Service (USSS), Miami Field Office, made the announcement.

Kenol Augustin, 36, was previously convicted by a federal jury of one count of conspiracy to commit access device fraud.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, in November 2014, an individual recruited into the scheme searched their employer’s database and accessed the names and Social Security numbers (personal identity information or PII) of individual medical patients. This employee then provided a list of individuals’ PII in exchange for a cash payment made by defendant Augustin. Augustin and his co-conspirators then caused false and fraudulent tax returns seeking refunds to be filed with the Internal Revenue Service using the PII that the conspirators had so obtained.

Mr. Ferrer commended the investigative efforts of IRS-CI and the USSS. These cases are being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys James V. Hayes and Gera Peoples.

Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.