Former Internal Revenue Service Employee Sentenced for Disclosing Tax Return Information

BOSTON – A former IRS employee was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Boston in connection with a conspiracy to abuse her position as an Internal Revenue Service customer representative to disclose tax return information to her boyfriend.

Nicole Johnson, 41, of Lawrence, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Mark L. Wolf to two years of probation and termination of her employment at the IRS.  In March 2016, Martin pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit unauthorized access to a government computer and one count of unauthorized disclosure of tax return information. 

From January 2011 through April 2014, Johnson, an IRS customer service representative, disclosed tax return information to her boyfriend, Stephen Marshall, a debt collector.  Johnson illegally used IRS systems to access tax return information belonging to her boyfriend’s former girlfriends, work colleagues and debtors from whom Marshall was assigned to collect debts, and provided the information to Marshall.

On Nov. 8, 2016, Marshall, of Lawrence, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Allison D. Burroughs to two years of probation.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz and William Kalb, Special Agent in Charge of the United States Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, New York Field Division, made the announcement today.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys Dustin Chao of Ortiz’s Public Corruption Unit and Giselle J. Joffre of Ortiz’s Major Crimes Unit prosecuted the case.