No, this isn’t a post on the next zombie movie. Yes, Las Vegas does have a Zombie Apocalypse Store (humorously, near one of my clients). But I digress….
Instead, we’re going to focus on a CPA from Northridge, California (in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles) who is very much alive. Masood Chotani pleaded guilty on Tuesday to conspiracy to defraud the US. What he did, with others who are now residing at ClubFed, was to file returns in the names of the truly dead. While the Department of Justice press release only states that the “…deceased people’s Social Security numbers and other identification information [were] obtained from the Internet,” it’s likely the Social Security Death Master File is once again the culprit.
Why this gift for tax fraudsters is still available is unknown. But if you want to purchase the names and social security numbers of the truly dead, you can do so courtesy of the US government. Meanwhile, the DOJ and IRS Criminal Investigation gets to follow up on thousands upon thousands of cases of tax fraud. This is definitely not a digression.
As for Mr. Chotani, he’ll be joining his co-conspirators at ClubFed. He’s also agreed to make restitution. Unfortunately, for the living relatives of the dead who are victims of identity theft, they wait in a zombie-like state for the nightmare of identity theft to be resolved.
Tags: Identity.Theft
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