Former IRS Employee Sentenced For 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, who was convicted of theft of government funds, was sentence to two years probation by U.S. Magistrate Judge H. Kenneth Schroeder, Jr. The defendant was also ordered to pay restitution totaling $18,550 to the New York State Department of Labor.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Maura K. O’Donnell and Elizabeth R. Moellering, who handled 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 sentencing is the result of an investigation by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Robert E. O’Malley, U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General, Office of Labor Racketeering and Fraud Investigations, under the direction of Michael C. Mikulka, Special Agent-in-Charge of the New York Region, and the New York State Department of Labor, under the direction of Commissioner Roberta Reardon.