Identity theft complaints soar 14.7 percent in 2014

On Sept. 26, 2014, in Anchorage, Alaska, Maximo Amparo-Vazquez, a citizen of the Dominican Republic, was sentenced to 84 months in prison and ordered to pay $559,755 in restitution to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. He had pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the government of $19 million. According to court documents, Amparo-Vazquez conspired with others to use stolen identities to file income tax returns to obtain fraudulent income tax refunds. The conspirators obtained personally identifiable information (PII) of more than 2,600 taxpayers, including names and Social Security numbers. (See the IRS document.)