Their actions allegedly caused the Internal Revenue Service to issue $973,153 in unwarranted refunds in response to 443 tax returns from August 2010 to June 2019.

The stoilen IDs belonged to clients of the social worker, John Tran, who pleaded guilty November 2019 to conspiracy to defraud the United States with respect to claims, mail fraud and aggravated identity theft. Six other individuals have also pleaded guilty in this case.The IDs were used in preparation and filing of 433 tax returns.

Nguyen, 53, of Fountain Valley, Calif.,  is also charged with three counts of making false claims against the United States for the payment of federal income tax refunds, and Pham additionally is charged with 10 counts of aiding and advising the filing of false tax returns.

Tran was a Orange County Social Services Agency case worker from July 1994 to October 2018 and admitted stealing ID information from clients, many recent immigrants. 

Tran stole information from his clients, many recent immigrants, from July 1994 through October 2018. He and his conspirators used stolen information to obtain money fraudulently from a number of governmental agencies and financial institutions from July 1994 through October 2018. 

Nguyen, owned and operated Century Travel & Tax, and Pham, owned and operated Victory Tax Service, both based in Westminster, Calif. They allegedly used stolen information to make fraudulent Forms 1099-MISC to show payments made to ID victims.

Furthermore, the reported payments were then offset against Nguyen’s and Pham’s clients to offset business revenues and reduce taxes they owed by making it appear that the identity theft victims. Nguyen and Pham’s clients allegedly paid a fee for them to fabricate Forms 1099.

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