A Miami Gardens resident was sentenced today to 30 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, and was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $64,557 for his participation in a stolen identity tax refund fraud scheme involving personal identification information taken from the State of Florida Department of Children and Families database.
Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Kelly R. Jackson, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), and Neil Melofchik, Acting Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Secret Service (USSS), Miami Field Office, made the announcement.
Kyron Jonathan Nedd, 22, of Miami Gardens, previously pled guilty to one count of possession of fifteen or more unauthorized access devices, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1029(a)(3), and one count of aggravated identity theft, in violation of Title l8, United States Code, Section 1028A(a)(1).
According to court documents, between Feb. 1, 2014 and July 18, 2014, fraudulent federal income tax returns for tax year 2013 were filed with the IRS from Nedd’s residence in Miami Gardens. The IRS refunded approximately $64,557 for those fraudulently filed tax returns.
Court documents state that on Feb. 12, 2015, a federal search warrant was executed at Nedd’s residence, where agents discovered items containing personal identification information (PII) - names, dates of birth and social security numbers - of hundreds of individuals. Inside Nedd’s bedroom, law enforcement found a safe with numerous debit cards and computer-generated printouts from the State of Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) database. IRS-CI agents have since determined that there were numerous instances in which the PII contained on the DCF printouts were used in fraudulent returns filed from Nedd’s residence.
According to court documents, federal law enforcement agents interviewed Nedd after serving the federal search warrant. Nedd admitted to law enforcement that he electronically filed the income tax returns from his house and that the returns were false and prepared without the taxpayers’ permission.
Mr. Ferrer commended the investigative efforts of IRS-CI and USSS. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Daya Nathan.
A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida at www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
