Sand Springs Police and IRS Snare Man for False Tax Returns

A Sand Springs man pleaded guilty today in federal court for filing a fraudulent tax return which resulted in a $3,800 tax refund, announced U.S. Attorney Trent Shores.

Kevin Glenn Petty, 54, pleaded guilty to theft of government property before Chief U.S. District Judge John E. Dowdell. In the plea agreement, Petty admitted to opening multiple financial accounts in order to receive the direct deposit refunds resulting from fraudulent federal income tax filings.

“Tax refund identity theft is a significant and growing problem. In fact, the IRS has previously identified it as the number one tax fraud scam they see,” said U.S. Attorney Trent Shores. “Tax refund identity theft can be a financially lethal combination for victims causing delays in their return or problems with future filings.”

In 2017, Petty filed a fraudulent 2016 income tax return using the name of a taxpayer who was unaware of the filing of the false document. The $3,800 tax refund amount was deposited into a Green Dot card account, which funded a Green Dot pre-paid debit account. Petty also filed five additional fraudulent returns, under different names, which were intercepted by the IRS. The six false returns filed by Petty sought a total of $12, 303 in fraudulent refunds.

At the time of his arrest by Sand Springs Police in 2017, Petty was found to be in possession of personal identifying information of multiple individuals.  The information in Petty’s possession at the time of his arrest included credit and debit cards in the names of other individuals, as well as a list of names with social security numbers and dates of birth.  Another document in Petty’s possession at the time of his arrest also included e-mail addresses and passwords, phone numbers, mailing addresses, and routing and bank account information for other individuals.

Chief Judge Dowdell set sentencing for Jan. 6, 2020.

The Sand Spring Police Department, IRS-Criminal Investigation and the U.S. Postal Inspector conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles M. McLoughlin prosecuted the case.