Postal Workers Caught in Tax Refund Fraud

A ring of criminals operating out of the Dominican Republic have been running a massive income tax refund scam in which billions of false income tax filings have cost the taxpayers billions of dollars in losses. In an article in The Wall Street Journal we see the following information:

Between October 2010 and June 2011, the IRS received phony tax returns based on stolen Puerto Rican identities that would have led to the disbursement of $5.6 billion to alleged fraudsters, two of these people said. It is unclear how much money the IRS ultimately sent but one person familiar with the matter said an estimated $2 billion in checks was distributed.

Bronx mail carrier Robert Anthony Warren and at least two other USPS employees have been convicted and are doing prison time for their part in the scam. Back in September five men were also convicted of participating in the same scam and sentenced to between 40 and 98 months in prison, while also being ordered to pay a whopping $12 million in restitution. Good luck recovering any of that cash there. With all of these arrests and convictions, has the oh-so-competent federal government shut down this scam for good? Not quite, as can be seen in a statement from the Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, whose office was among the first to investigate the group: (emphasis added)

“What we have uncovered may very well be the tip of the iceberg,” said Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, whose office was among the first to investigate the group. “It’s a massive fraud.”

With a federal government that is running up trillion dollar deficits faster than the Roadrunner rocketing past the outgunned Wiley E. Coyote in cartoon-land,  as the federal bureaucracy grows bigger by the minute….so increases these numbers of incidents that highlight their incompetence and dysfunctionality. In the meantime, Senate progressives are currently working tirelessly (yes.. sarcasm intended) to rig up a massive $42 billion-dollar-bailout of the USPS UNION pension fund under the guise of…. reform.  From the thieves that are scamming the taxpayers from the Dominican Republic through fraudulent tax refund checks, to today’s Senate Socialists giving their Democrat-supporting labor [USPS] Unions $42 billion tax dollars, America is being robbed blind on a daily basis, in more ways than one. Americans should keep this in mind as they head to the voting booth in November.