JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Georgia man has pleaded guilty in Missouri to receiving more than $2.3 million in tax refunds from several states by using identities he stole from dead people.
The U.S. Attorney's office says 40-year-old Sirhon Rivers pleaded guilty Thursday to wire fraud, identity theft and conspiracy.
Rivers admitted receiving $547,000 in Missouri refunds using fraudulent tax returns. He used the same scheme to collect refunds from Alabama, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Rhode Island and Virginia.
Rivers obtained personal information of people who had died, then used it on state tax returns to which he added false information about employment and wages earned.
Rivers faces up to 60 years in prison. His hometown in Georgia was not clear.
