A North Miami resident was sentenced yesterday by United States District Judge Kathleen M. Williams to 40 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, for possessing over 1,000 pieces of personal identifying information of other individuals.
Benjamin G. Greenberg, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Rafiq Ahmad, Special Agent in Charge, United States Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General (DOL-OIG), and Nonie Manion, Acting Commissioner, New York State Department of Taxation and Finance made the announcement.
Randy Jacques, 28, previously pled guilty to one count of possession of 15 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 18, United States Code, Section 1028A(a)(1).
According to court documents, on Aug. 20, 2015, pursuant to a search warrant, law enforcement searched Jacques’ residence in connection with an investigation related to the more than 200 fraudulent telephone calls made to the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. During the search of the residence, law enforcement recovered a laptop from the defendant’s room. A forensic analysis of the laptop revealed documents containing the personal identifying information (PII) of other individuals, including their names, dates of birth and social security numbers. The forensic analysis identified 1,147 unique pieces of PII. In addition, approximately 47 New York State tax forms were recovered from the laptop.
Law enforcement spoke with an individual victim whose name, date of birth, and social security number were located on Jacques’ laptop, and confirmed that he/she did not authorize the defendant to be in possession of the PII.
“The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Florida is committed to combatting identity theft fraud schemes that compromise local and national taxpayer identities," said Acting U.S. Attorney Benjamin G. Greenberg. “Prosecuting the offenders who unlawfully steal and possess the personal identification information of others remains a top priority for the Office and our partners."
“The U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General collaborated with investigative partners at the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance to dismantle an identity theft scheme based in South Florida. We will continue working diligently to combat these types of schemes," stated Rafiq Ahmad, Special Agent in Charge, Atlanta Region, DOL-OIG.
"Criminals who steal private taxpayer information will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," said Acting Commissioner of the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance Nonie Manion. "New York State goes to great lengths to protect honest taxpayers from being victimized by identity thieves using stolen data for their own personal gain. We will continue to track down these criminals, wherever they may be, and stop their illegal schemes."
Mr. Greenberg commended the investigative efforts of DOL-OIG and the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Joshua S. Rothstein.
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
