IRS Employees Accused of Fraud

Internal Revenue Service employees allegedly embezzled $5.3 million in taxpayer checks and cash from 1995 to 1997, according to a new General Accounting Office report. In one scheme, an IRS employee and his co-conspirators altered a taxpayer check to change the payee from “I.R.S.” to “I.R. Smith” and deposited the altered check into a personal checking account, the GAO said. In another case, a taxpayer’s check for $590,000 was stolen from a tax-return processing center. IRS officials did not take issue with the report, but said that field offices undergo regular security checks and efforts are underway to strengthen the screening of job applicants.