Diep Vo, ID Theft, California 2024

A California woman has pleaded guilty to a brazen scheme to steal the identities of homeless individuals and use them to file false claims for tax refunds with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Diep Vo, 74, aka Nancy Vo, conspired with codefendant Trong Nguyen, aka John Nguyen, to use the IDs of vulnerable individuals in the San Jose, California area to file fraudulent claims for refunds with the IRS.

According to court documents, Vo went to homeless shelters and halfway houses, falsely representing to individuals that she could get them money from a government program designed to assist people who had not worked in previous years. She convinced people to write down their names and social security numbers, and to sign blank income tax returns.

Vo and Nguyen then falsified the signed returns, including bogus income and income tax withheld amounts, and sought fraudulent refunds from the IRS. The refund checks were directed to private mailboxes they controlled.

Nguyen previously pleaded guilty to submitting and conspiring to submit false claims for refund. Sentencing is scheduled for November 14.

Vo faces a statutory maximum sentence of five years in prison on each count of conspiring to file false claims and submitting false claims for refund, 20 years in prison for each count of mail fraud, and a mandatory minimum sentence of two years in prison for aggravated identity theft.

Vo also faces a period of supervised release, restitution, and monetary penalties. Nguyen is scheduled to be sentenced on July 25.

Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg and U.S. Attorney Brian J. Stretch thanked special agents of IRS Criminal Investigation and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, who conducted the investigation, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Newman and Trial Attorney Gregory Bernstein of the Tax Division, who are prosecuting the case.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/california-resident-pleads-guilty-stealing-homeless-individuals-ids-and-using-them-seek