00:00The Fraud Division's tax section brought an indictment in the Northern District of Georgia,
00:04charging three individuals with numerous crimes arising out of a $74 million scheme to defraud
00:10the IRS. According to the indictment, the men, all Mexican citizens, obtained Mexican IDs of
00:19third parties and used them to get IRS filing numbers. They filed fraudulent returns using
00:26those identities, and they allegedly received more than 16,000 U.S. Treasury refund checks,
00:34totaling around $74 million. Stolen identity refund fraud cases must be stopped. We must stand ready
00:44to protect our government's revenue sources from bad actors wherever they might live and operate.
00:50Now, in addition to stealing from taxpayer-funded programs, fraudsters also target taxpayer dollars
00:57by criminally siphoning money from the Internal Revenue Service. Just last month, GAO estimated
01:05that taxpayers lose up to $304 billion every year due to fraud schemes perpetrated against the IRS.
01:14We are actively combating those tax fraud schemes. And today, on the eve of the tax extension filing
01:22deadline of October 15th, we are announcing the first-ever nationwide tax fraud surge.
01:30In the past 45 days, the Fraud Division's tax section and United States Attorney's offices
01:36across the country participated in the national tax enforcement surge. The surge of nationwide resources
01:43resulted in prosecutorial actions against 76 defendants in 45 days whose alleged and proven crimes totaled
01:52an intended loss of over $490 million. Those 76 prosecutorial actions in 45 days include new charges
02:03against 31 defendants whose alleged schemes targeted approximately $350 million in intended loss
02:11to the taxpayer. During this surge, we have also achieved two trial victories, dozens of other convictions
02:19through guilty pleas, and numerous sentencings of criminal fraudsters. The work completed has been a nationwide effort,
02:27with cases from Alaska to Maine to Florida to Minnesota and many states in between.
02:33For more information, visit www.a.gov.au.au.au.au.au.
02:33For more information, visit www.a.gov.au.au.au.
02:34For more information, visit www.a.gov.au.au.au.
