Thread: Illegal immigrants indicted for stealing Texans' tax refund

Illegal immigrants indicted for stealing Texans' tax refund checks

09:25 AM CDT on Thursday, June 11, 2009

Associated Press
WICHITA, Kan. -- A federal grand jury indicted eight illegal immigrants Wednesday on charges of stealing tax refund checks from Texas workers and using phony IDs to cash them in Kansas.

The indictment accuses immigrants from Mexico and Honduras of using fraudulent Texas driver’s licenses in the names of the legal workers whose refund checks were stolen to cash them in Wichita and Hutchinson. It charges them with conspiracy to defraud the United States, illegal re-entry, forgery, aggravated identity theft and possession and use of fraudulent documents.

The dozen or so tax refund checks identified so far in the case were processed at the Internal Revenue Service Center in Austin, Texas, and mailed to apartments in Austin, Houston and Dallas, Assistant U.S. Attorney Brent Anderson said. Federal authorities are contacting the victims, who do not need to take any action, he said.

Anderson said federal officials are seeing more crimes committed by people from other countries, and the theft of refunds from U.S. taxpayers especially rankled him.

“Whether it be check fraud, credit card fraud, document fraud, employment fraud, social security fraud, insurance fraud, mortgage fraud, welfare fraud, gang activity, drug trafficking, alien smuggling, firearm possession—the boldness and audacity of foreign nationals not lawfully present in the United States committing such crimes is growing,â€

[quote]
“At this stage, I can’t say a whole lot,â€

[quote]Anderson said federal officials are seeing more crimes committed by people from other countries, and the theft of refunds from U.S. taxpayers especially rankled him.

“Whether it be check fraud, credit card fraud, document fraud, employment fraud, social security fraud, insurance fraud, mortgage fraud, welfare fraud, gang activity, drug trafficking, alien smuggling, firearm possession—the boldness and audacity of foreign nationals not lawfully present in the United States committing such crimes is growing,â€