Pierluigi Paganini May 02, 2019

The US DoJ indicted a Russian national for obtaining over $1.5 million in fraudulent tax refunds from the Internal Revenue Service.

The US DoJ indicted the Russian national ANTON P. BOGDANOV for obtaining over $1.5 million in fraudulent tax refunds from the Internal Revenue Service.

Bogdanov was charged in federal court in Brooklyn of wire fraud conspiracy, aggravated identity theft and computer intrusion in connection with a scheme in which he and other crooks used stolen personal information to file federal tax returns and fraudulently obtain more than $1.5 million in tax refunds from the Internal Revenue Service.

The Russian man was arrested in Phuket, Thailand, on November 28, 2018 and was extradited to the United States in March 2019. 

“As alleged in the indictment, Bogdanov and his co-conspirators combined sophisticated computer hacking and identity theft with old-fashioned fraud to steal more than $1.5 million from the U.S. Treasury,” stated United States Attorney Donoghue.  “This Office, together with our law enforcement partners, will use all our available resources to target and bring cybercriminals to justice, wherever they are.”

According to the indictment, between June 2014 and November 2016,
ANTON P. BOGDANOV and his co-conspirators compromised computer systems of private tax preparation firms in the United States and stole personally identifiable information (PII) (including Social Security numbers and dates of birth) of the victims.

Crooks used stolen data to impersonate the victims and modified the tax returns to ensure that the refunds are paid to their prepaid debit cards.

“Bogdanov and his co-conspirators also used misappropriated PII to obtain prior tax filings of victims from an IRS website, and filed new tax returns, purportedly on behalf of the victims, so that refunds were paid to prepaid debit cards under their control.” reads the press release published by the DoJ. “The debit cards were cashed out in the United States, and a percentage of the proceeds was wired to Bogdanov in Russia.”

According to the investigators, the debit cards were cashed out in the United States, while Bogdanov received a percentage of the proceeds in Russia.

If convicted of the charges, ANTON P. BOGDANOV could face up to 27 years’ imprisonment.

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – Anton P. Bogdanov, cybecrime)

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