Six people have been charged with conspiracy, fraud, filing false claims, and aggravated identity theft, for using the information of deceased persons to file false tax returns so they could obtain millions in fraudulent IRS tax refunds.
Andrew Hanzelic, 45, Brian Summers, 32, Ronald Kelly, 40, Clint Tarrant, 54, and Terry Williamson, 59, all of Las Vegas, and Kelly Coyan, 53, of Lenexa, Kan., are each charged in a criminal indictment with one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud. Hanzelic, Coyan, Summers and Kelly, are also charged with false claims and aggravated identity theft, and Tarrant is also charged with theft of government funds, according to a news release.
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Hanzelic and Summers pleaded not guilty to the charges and are currently in federal custody pending trial. Williamson had been scheduled for an initial court appearance and arraignment today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Cam Ferenbach. Coyan is scheduled for an arraignment at 3 p.m. Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Nancy J. Koppe.
Defendants Kelly and Tarrant are not yet in federal custody on the charges.
If convicted, the defendants face up to 20 years in prison and $250,000 in fines on the conspiracy charge, up to five years in prison and $250,000 in fines on each false claims charge, two years in prison, which must run consecutive to the other counts, and $250,000 in fines on the aggravated identity theft charges, and up to 10 years in prison and $250,000 in fines on each theft of government property count.
“A major priority of the Department of Justice is prosecuting people who use stolen identities to steal money from the United States Treasury by filing fake tax returns that claim substantial tax refunds,” said Daniel G. Bogden, U.S. Attorney for the District of Nevada.
“Working to stop Stolen Identity Refund Fraud, or SIRF, is vital because these schemes threaten to disrupt the orderly administration of our income tax system for hundreds of thousands of law abiding taxpayers and have cost the United States Treasury billions of dollars.”
According to the indictment, the defendants allegedly used the personal identifiers of deceased victims to file false tax returns and obtain fraudulent tax refunds from the U.S. Treasury.
Hanzelic allegedly obtained information of deceased persons, including their dates of birth, last known addresses, and Social Security numbers, from various online genealogical databases and provided it for a fee to the co-schemers. The co-schemers then made or caused to be made fraudulent Nevada driver’s licenses, Social Security cards and W-2’s in the names of the victims and used the false identities to file the fraudulent tax returns with the IRS.
The defendants used several bank accounts and debit cards to receive the refunds. Defendants Hanzelic and Williamson managed the accounts and paid the co-schemers a salary from the bank accounts they controlled. The defendants allegedly obtained more than $2.7 million in fraudulent tax refunds using this scheme.
The case is being investigated by IRS Criminal Investigation, and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kathryn C. Newman and Kimberly M. Frayn.
