Former Alabama Worker Sentenced for ID Theft

(CN) - A former State of Alabama employee was sentenced on Tuesday to more than seven years in prison for her involvement in an identity theft ring, the U.S. Department of Justice announced.

Tamika Floyd of Phenix City, Ala., was sentenced to serve 87 months, plus three years of supervised release. She was also ordered to pay more than $3 million in restitution.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Floyd pleaded guilty in October to one count of conspiracy to file false claims and one count of aggravated identity theft.

She was sentenced May 19 by U.S. District Court Judge W. Keith Watkins of the Middle District of Alabama.

According to prosecutors, Floyd worked for the State of Alabama's Department of Public Health and Department of Human Resources between 2006 and 2014. During that time, she was able to access personal information, which she then provided to her co-conspirators for the purpose of filing false federal income tax returns.

Based on the information she provided, more than 3,000 false returns were filed, claiming over $7.5 million in refunds, the government said.

Eight others pleaded guilty to related charges, including conspiracy to file false claims, aggravated identity theft and wire fraud. They're scheduled to be sentenced June 30.

According to the Department of Justice, the wide-ranging scheme involved stolen information from both the Alabama state agencies and a military hospital at Ft. Benning, Ga. Co-conspirator Tracy Mitchell, who worked at the hospital, was able to access the identifying information of military personnel, including for soldiers who'd been deployed to Afghanistan.

Floyd's sentence was announced by Acting Assistant Attorney General Caroline Ciraolo with the Department of Justice's Tax Division and U.S. Attorney George Beck Jr.

In a previous statement, Beck called identity theft a "horrendous crime," saying it can take "months or years for a victim of identity theft to correct the damage that these criminals reaped upon him or her."

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