Letter to Commissioner Daniel Werfel, Internal Revenue Service - Insider Tax Fraud

Letter

Following news reports of an IRS employee in Kentucky who allegedly accessed IRS servers to obtain taxpayers' identities for the purposes of fraudulently collecting benefits, Rep. Rich Nugent (FL-11) sent the following letter to the IRS Commissioner:

Dear Commissioner Werfel,

I write today in response to recent news reports that an Internal Revenue Service employee allegedly used taxpayers' personal information in an effort to fraudulently receive those taxpayers' Social Security payments. The alleged activity was carried out by an employee in Kentucky with the assistance of a man from the state of Florida. As you're well aware, identity theft-related tax fraud is, unfortunately, all too prevalent in my state. However, what is particularly troubling about this news is that the malicious actor in question was an actual employee of the Service. All government employees, especially those who work for the IRS, have the distinction of upholding the public's trust. However, according to news reports, the IRS employee exceeded her authorized access to an IRS computer in order to take taxpayers' information. The employee then allegedly used that information to obtain prepaid debit cards in the taxpayers' name. What isn't clear is how the employee was able to exceed her authorized access and what mechanism, if any, is in place to prevent other employees from doing the same. While I understand that this likely did not begin under your watch, we are requesting a response that details how this employee was able to exceed her authorized access, what safeguards are currently in place to prevent breaches of taxpayers' personal information such as this, and what additional steps the IRS can take to ensure it is not replicated? Additionally, if any taxpayers were negatively affected by this violation, have they been notified of the situation? Finally, I applaud the efforts of the IRS Criminal Investigation Division in Tallahassee, the Leon County Sheriff's Office, and the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration in Covington for uncovering this activity. It is my hope that we can work together in the future to stop these types of breaches before they occur.

Sincerely,
Rich Nugent
Member of Congress (FL-11)

Rep. Nugent Statement on the Letter:

"Obviously, for the last few years, Florida has seen an epidemic of identity-theft related tax fraud. I've introduced legislation to combat it, as have a number of my colleagues in the Florida delegation -- on both sides of the aisle. It's something that we all want to see fixed. So the fact that we now have an IRS employee (working with an accomplice in Florida) who is actually engaged in this sort of fraud brings my concern to a new level.

"With everything else that's been going on at the IRS, the fact that we'd have at least one person within the agency who was able to get into taxpayers' records without authorization is a serious, serious problem. I really hope to get some candid answers about how this happened and how they're going to prevent it going forward."

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