TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA – Teona N. Rodgers, 28, of Tampa, was sentenced today, after being convicted on May 3 of theft of government funds, possession of 15 or more unauthorized access devices, use of unauthorized access devices, aggravated identity theft, and false claims. Rodgers was sentenced to 75 months in prison, 3 years supervised release and ordered to pay $151,577 in restitution. The sentence was announced by Christopher P. Canova, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida.
While on a track and field scholarship at Florida State University, Rodgers participated in a scheme to file fraudulent income tax returns during the 2011 and 2012 tax years by using other people’s personal information. The scheme was discovered in November 2013, when two notebooks and 12 debit cards in other people’s names were discovered in the Tallahassee apartment Rodgers had recently vacated.
The notebooks contained handwritten names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, tax refund amounts, account numbers, and other data of more than 150 individuals. The notebooks also included notations such as "rejected" and "filed," and detailed instructions to file a return reporting $47,196 of interest income. This amount was used on multiple tax returns in this scheme (including Rodgers’s own 2011 and 2012 returns). Investigators determined that the returns had been filed from IP addresses linked to Rodgers and that the false returns had funded the debit cards. Rodgers used these debit cards to make purchases. In total, the information contained in the notebooks was used to file 64 fraudulent tax returns, seeking $465,948 in refunds.
This case resulted from an investigation by the Emerald Coast Financial Crimes Task Force, comprised of the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation and the Leon County Sheriff’s Office, as well as the United States Secret Service and the Tallahassee Police Department. Assistant United States Attorney Gary Milligan prosecuted the case.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Florida is one of 94 offices that serve as the nation’s principal litigators under the direction of the Attorney General. To access public court documents online, please visit the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida
website. For more information about the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Florida, visit http://www.justice.gov/usao/fln/index.html.
--DOJ Northern District of Florida