Former IRS Employee Pleads Guilty To Theft Of Government Funds

CONTACT:      Barbara Burns
PHONE:         (716) 843-5817
FAX:            (716) 551-3051 

BUFFALO, N.Y.-U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul Jr. announced today that Yvonne E. Borders, 43, of Cheektowaga, NY, pleaded guilty to theft of government funds before U.S. Magistrate Judge H. Kenneth Schroeder, Jr. The charge carries a maximum penalty of one year in jail and a $100,000 fine.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth R. Moellering, who is handling the case, stated that Borders applied for and collected unemployment benefits from the United States Department of the Treasury that she was not entitled to because she was working at the time for the Internal Revenue Service. Individuals are eligible for unemployment benefits when they become unemployed through no fault of their own and meet certain eligibility requirements. However, the defendant certified claims for benefits while she was employed as a contact representative with the IRS and failed to report this work to the New York State Department of Labor.

In total, Borders collected $18,550 in benefits that she was not entitled to from January 2009 through December 2013.

The plea is the result of an investigation by the Department of the Treasury, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, under the direction of Robert E. O’Malley, the United States Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General, Office of Labor Racketeering and Fraud Investigations, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge Jonathan Mellone, New York Region, and the New York State Department of Labor, under the direction of Commissioner Roberta Reardon.
Sentencing is scheduled for July 27, 2016 at 10:30 a.m. before Judge Schroeder.