Queens Man Pleads Guilty to Stolen Identity Refund Fraud

SYRACUSE, NEW YORK – Miles Bailey, age 53, of Queens, New York, and formerly of Albany, pled guilty today to conspiring to commit theft of public money, theft of public money, and aggravated identity theft.  Bailey was set to stand trial beginning today in Syracuse.

The announcement was made by United States Attorney Grant C. Jaquith and James Robnett, Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Office of Internal Revenue Service (IRS)-Criminal Investigation.

As part of his plea, Bailey admitted that between March 2011 and July 2014, he and others knowingly submitted fraudulent income tax returns to the IRS on behalf of at least 50 individual victims.  The returns falsely claimed that these individuals were entitled to income tax refunds from the federal government.  The conspirators obtained the resulting fraudulent tax refund checks from the Department of the Treasury by mail.  Bailey then deposited the checks into his various bank accounts and spent or distributed the proceeds. 

Bailey faces at least 2 years and up 10 years in prison, and up to 3 years of post-imprisonment supervised release, when Senior United States District Judge Frederick J. Scullin Jr. sentences him on May 20, 2019.  Bailey will also be required to pay a forfeiture money judgment of approximately $1,963,991, which was the amount of fraudulent proceeds that he deposited into his bank accounts.

Two co-conspirators, Eric Thorne, age 50, of Albany, and James Simmons, age 50, of Rensselaer, previously pled guilty to conspiracy to commit theft of public funds and will be sentenced on May 21, 2019. 

This case was investigated by IRS-Criminal Investigation, the Town of Colonie Police Department, the Town of Niskayuna Police Department, the City of Albany Police Department, the New York State Police, and the United States Postal Inspection Service. 

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Megan Kistler.