Disbarred Lawyer Turns Himself In On Grand Theft Charges

A disbarred Sarasota personal injury lawyer turned himself in on 8/28/12 on eight counts of grand theft, allegedly victimizing a World War II veteran among others.

Scott Schieb arrived at Sarasota Police Department headquarters for the charges, having bilked $200,000 from victims, according to the police department.

Schieb was being investigated for seven months following his disbarment from the Florida Bar Association in October 2011, according to police.

The Florida Bar filed a complaint with the Twelfth Judicial Circuit in November saying that as many as 12 victims had their injury settlement payments stolen by Schieb.

Investigators determined that all 12 victims were misled, lied to or misrepresented by Schieb over a number of years, according to police.

Schieb settled cases without notifying clients and kept their money, police said.

Police were able to identify eight victims, including a World War II veteran. Police said that many of the victims still require more medical procedures and some have lost their homes, cars and jobs.

Schieb’s troubles had first started in 2003 when law partner Richard Groner had committed suicide, The Herald-Tribune reported in November:

“The partner, Richard Groner, handled the firm’s trust accounts — the place where, for example, an insurance company settlement check for either lawyer’s clients would end up until the time came to split the money up between client and attorney.

But no money was left in trust accounts when Groner took his life. Under Florida Bar regulations, both partners had full responsibility for the trust account.

The Florida Bar reprimanded Schieb in 2005, and put on probation for two years, requiring him to have a certified public accountant reviewing his trust account during that time.”

Anyone with information about this case or if they believe they were a victim of Schieb is asked to call Detective Jack Carter at 941-954-7088.

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Jacksonville man sentenced to 10 years in prison for ID theft that allowed access to military bases.

A Jacksonville man who illegally accessed key facilities for years and whose true identity is still not entirely clear to federal authorities has been sentenced to a decade behind bars following his conviction of identity theft.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said the man had been living under the identity of someone else for about 22 years. During that time, using bogus government identification, he had access to at least five ships at Mayport Naval Station and secure areas at JaxPort, including Blount Island Marine Terminal.

He is identified in court documents as John Doe, aka “Leroy Mayers,” “Leroy Meyers” and “L.T.H.”

The man used another living person’s Social Security number to get at least 23 government-issued forms of identification, including a passport, two Mayport Military Contractor ID cards, three Florida ID cards and six replacement Social Security cards.

The man, who was indicted in October 2011, was not charged with a violent crime or terrorism offense. A federal jury convicted him May 24 of seven counts of aggravated identify theft, six counts of falsely representing a Social Security number and one count of passport fraud, according to court documents.

Prior to his sentencing Monday, prosecutors submitted documents to the federal court that stated, “John Doe has expressed no remorse for his actions and continued to perpetrate the fraud through his perjurious testimony at trial.”

During one pre-trial court appearance the man, who according to court documents is 44 years old, said he lived on Waxwing Avenue in Jacksonville.

“As of yet, law enforcement has not affirmatively identified John Doe,” said a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Bill Austin, public affairs officer at Mayport, said John Doe worked on the base in 2010 in the shipyards. During his employment, Austin said, the man provided a driver’s license and passport to officials.

Identity theft is the fastest-growing crime in the United States and has been since the mid-1990s, according to federal prosecutors.

(original article)

IRS May Have Lost Billions To Identity Theft, Treasury Says.

The Internal Revenue Service may have delivered more than $5 billion in refund checks to identity thieves who filed fraudulent tax returns for 2011, Treasury Department investigators said on August 2, 2012. They estimate another $21 billion could make its way to ID thieves’ pockets over the next five years.

The IRS is detecting far fewer fraudulent tax refund claims than actually occur, according to a government audit that warned the widespread problem could undermine public trust in the U.S. tax system. Although the IRS detected about 940,000 fraudulent returns for last year claiming $6.5 billion in refunds, there were potentially another 1.5 million undetected cases of thieves seeking refunds after assuming the identity of a dead person, child or someone else who normally wouldn’t file a tax return.

In one example, investigators found a single address in Lansing, Mich., that was used to file 2,137 separate tax returns. The IRS issued more than $3.3 million in refunds to that address. Three addresses in Florida, the epicenter of the identity theft crisis, filed more than 500 returns totaling more than $1 million in refunds for each address.

In another troubling scenario, hundreds of refunds were deposited into the same bank account – a red flag for investigators searching for ID thieves who may be filing for refunds for multiple people. In one instance, the IRS deposited 590 refunds totaling more than $900,000 into one account.

“We found multiple reasons for the IRS’s inability to detect billions of dollars in fraud,” J. Russell George, the Treasury Department’s inspector general for tax administration, in a statement. “At a time when every dollar counts, these results are extremely troubling.”

Topping the list of concerns is the IRS’s lack of timely access to third-party information it needs to verify returns and root out fraud.

Many Americans are struggling to pay their bills and the IRS takes pride in processing returns and issuing refunds promptly. But taxpayers can start filing their returns in mid-January, while employers and financial institutions don’t have to submit withholding and income documents for taxpayers to the IRS until the end of March. That means the IRS often issues refunds long before it can confirm the veracity of what’s listed on taxpayer returns.

Thieves are also exploiting vulnerabilities in the way the IRS delivers refunds, investigators found. Of the 1.5 million undetected cases of potential fraud, 1.2 million used direct deposits, including pre-loaded debit cards. Thieves often prefer those methods to a paper check, which require a physical address to receive the check and photo ID matching the taxpayer’s name to cash it.

IRS officials said the growth of identity theft-related fraud is one of its biggest challenges. Already this year, the agency has stopped almost $12 billion in confirmed fraud, it says. And it says its criminal investigators are actively pursuing those who perpetrate fraud – including the previously undetected cases identified by the audit.

“If the IRS determines a refund has been issued improperly, we will attempt to recoup the funds,” said IRS spokeswoman Michelle Eldridge.

The IRS agreed with the inspector general that Congress should expand the agency’s access to resources that could help it fight theft, including the National Directory of New Hires, a database created to help states enforce child support orders. The IRS specifically asked Congress for that authority in its 2013 budget request.

But IRS officials disputed the notion that $21 billion in fraudulent returns could be issued over the next five years, arguing that the estimate didn’t take into account the IRS’s stepped-up compliance and prevention efforts.

“We’re going to continue to monitor the IRS in this area until we see some improvement,” Michael McKenney, the acting deputy inspector general for audit, told The Associated Press.

Investigators went back through a sample of the 1.5 billion undetected cases to see why the IRS never flagged them as fraudulent. In 49 of 60 returns, investigators said, the return didn’t score high enough on the IRS’s fraud filter to merit a closer review. In eight of the 11 cases where the IRS did perform an additional review, it never verified the income and withholding on the return.

The audit was prompted by a request from Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, whose home state contains the top two cities where fraudulent tax returns originate: Tampa and Miami. Last week Nelson, a Democrat, joined with Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma to introduce legislation designed to curb identity theft in the tax system.

“It’s an ongoing problem,” Nelson said in a statement. “We’ve got to find a fix.”

Nelson’s bill would improve protections for Social Security numbers that thieves need to file returns, and would expand an existing program that gives previous victims of ID theft a personal identification number to deter repeat offenses against the same taxpayer. Another bipartisan bill passed by the House on Wednesday would bolster prosecutions and strengthen criminal penalties on ID thieves.

The IRS said it is already putting a number of new measures in place, including new ID theft screening filters that will hold on to refunds until the IRS can verify a taxpayer’s identity. That filter had thwarted about $1.3 billion in potentially fraudulent refunds through April, the audit said. Another system flags returns filed with Social Security numbers of those who have died.

For those who fall victim to identity thieves, the recovery process can be less than smooth. A separate report by the inspector general in May found that the IRS wasn’t providing good customer service and proper assistance to victims of ID theft, increasing the burden for those whose identities are stolen. The Federal Trade Commission has listed identity theft as the No. 1 consumer complaint for the past 12 years.

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Florida woman accused in rash of identity theft crimes in Milford.

Police said they have found more evidence against a woman whom they believe has been involved in a string of identity theft crimes.

Investigators recovered several stolen drivers licenses and credit cards alleged to have been used in for identity theft by Shannon Truax, 41, of Bonita Springs, Fl. Police located three victims and applied for arrest warrants. Truax is charged with three counts of sixth degree larceny and her bond was set at $6,000.

Police originally received a complaint on May 29 that a woman was attempting to make a fraudulent transaction at the Bank of America located on the Boston Post Road. She attempted to use a stolen driver’s license to withdraw $7,000, police said.

Bank personnel received prior notification from the Connecticut Financial Crimes Task Force about Truax’s alleged similar activities in the state. Truax is currently incarcerated for the May 29 incident and other related cases in the state.

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New app protects against ID theft, fraud.

If you live in Florida, the odds are you will come across way more identity thieves and fraudsters than hurricanes or alligators. So it may be worth adding the new app called Scam Detector onto your iPhone or Android device.

The app is free, so you’ve go nothing to lose checking it out. And in Florida, you have plenty to lose when it comes to bad guys wanting to steal your identity or cash.

Florida is among the worst in the nation for these types of crimes. It ranks first per capita in identity theft complaints nationwide, with more than 178 complaints per 100,000 residents; and ranks sixth in fraud complaints, with about 515 complaints per 100,000 residents, according to the Consumer Sentinel Network, which compiles data on consumer complaints received by the Federal Trade Commission and state agencies, such as the Florida Department of Agricultural and Consumer Services.

Scam Detector is designed to prevent you from becoming such a statistic by keeping you informed of the latest schemes out there.

The app’s menu offers five categories to research: Auto, Face to Face, Internet, Telephone and Travel scams. Under the latter, I learned about the Beach Massage scheme, in which a woman walks up and offers a massage while you lay on your towel. By the time you open your eyes, there are two women both asking to be paid. And the ol’ Gym Membership scam, in which add-on charges for “insurance” and “maintenance and upkeep” appear on your bill after you sign up, not during the sales pitch.

If you believe you are a victim of fraud, contact the Florida Attorney General’s Office at 866-966-7226 or go to myfloridalegal.com. You may also contact the FTC at 1-877-ID-THEFT or visit FTC.com.

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Ferrous Prices Regain What Was Lost in November

After a November buying period when ferrous prices dropped from $30 to $45 per ton, prices rebounded by nearly the same amounts in December. Spot market figures collected through the Raw Material Data Aggregation Service (RMDAS) of Management Science Associates (MSA), Pittsburgh, show domestic steel mills paying from $10 to $40 more per ton for their scrap in the first 20 days of December.

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Ferrous Prices Regain What Was Lost in November

Rapid Recovery Opens Territory in Florida

Rapid Recovery , a nationwide refrigerant abatement company based in Peoria, Ariz., has announced the opening of its Jacksonville, Fla. territory. Chan Ritchie and Hank Taylor will own and operate the business

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Rapid Recovery Opens Territory in Florida

Georgia DOT Using Recycled Tires in Asphalt

Lehigh Technologies has announced that the Georgia Department of Transportation (DOT) has laid rubber-modified asphalt (RMA), made from recycled tires, in Bibb County, Ga. The state is expanding on previous studies with RMA, testing the material’s performance versus traditional asphalt materials in “real-world conditions.” Currently, according to Lehigh Technologies, Georgia permits rubber modification in certain asphalt pavement type and jobs. The test is being conducted in collaboration with several Georgia companies: Reeves Construction, a leader in the heavy highway and asphalt paving industry in Georgia; Liberty Tire Recycling, which does the primary processing of the end-of-life tires from Georgia; and Lehigh Technologies, which processes the product from Liberty into sustainable micronized rubber powder (MRP) that is added to the asphalt formulation to be applied by Reeves

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Georgia DOT Using Recycled Tires in Asphalt

ViaTek Solutions Receives E-Stewards Certification

The electronics recycling company ViaTek Solutions , based in Tampa, Fla., has announced that its Tampa and Lawrenceville, Ga., facilities have been certified to the e-Stewards Standard for Responsible Recycling and Reuse of Electronic Equipment , which was developed by the Seattle-based Basel Action Network (BAN ).

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ViaTek Solutions Receives E-Stewards Certification

American Products Enterprises Releases New Product

American Products Enterprises Corp ., Port St. Lucie, Florida,