ALABAMA
An Alabama woman admitted filing 3,000 false tax returns for 2012 and 2013 totaling $7.5 million, some of the information for the identity theft was obtained from databases that belonged to the state of Alabama, according to officials.
Talashia Hinton, also known as LayLay and LaLa, participated in a large-scale stolen identity tax refund conspiracy between 2011 and 2014, according to authorities.
Hinton plead guilty to conspiracy and aggravated identity theft for her role in the multimillion-dollar stolen identity tax refund fraud, officials said.
The indictment indicated that Hinton worked with Keisha Lanier, who supplied her with IRS electronic filing identification numbers in the names of sham tax businesses and stolen identities that included personal information so that Hinton could prepare and file false tax returns to claim refunds using the stolen identities.
At the direction of Lanier, officials said Hinton also obtained identities from Tamika Floyd, who stole names from databases maintained by the state of Alabama. The false returns directed the IRS to pay the refunds by issuing U.S. Treasury checks and direct deposits onto prepaid debit cards.
Tamika Floyd was sentenced to serve seven years and three months in prison on May 19.
Lanier is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 24 and other defendants involved in the scheme were sentenced on Aug. 7.