Inmates Intimate with Federal Paperwork

In January, the Treasury Department’s inspector general for tax administration revealed twice as many fraudulent income tax refunds were paid to inmates in 2011 (173,000) as were in tax year 2010. The IRS claimed, however, the fraudulent returns it did manage to stop totaled $2.5 billion, almost half of which was claimed by just two inmates. The Department of Health & Human Service’s inspector general reported Medicare was illegally billed for $120 million from 2009-’11 for services used by inmates and illegal immigrants — neither category of which is authorized to use Medicare.