Fake jobs site owner filed tax returns with stolen identities

A 31-year-old that has set up a website offering the possibility for unemployed people to apply for non-existing jobs and has been using the collected applicants’ personal information to file fraudulent tax returns has been charged with identity theft, grand larceny and money laundering.

Russian citizen and Brooklyn resident Petr Murmylyuk, a.k.a. Dmitry Tokar, has allegedly created a site, Jobcentral2.net, supposedly sponsored by the government and intended for people with low income.

According to the NYT, unsuspecting victims applied for the listed jobs and willingly parted with enough personal information for Murmylyuk to file believable tax return requests.

Unemployed people are unlikely to file a tax return as they have no income, so the possibility of the IRS receiving filings from both Murmylyuk and the job seekers was hugely minimized.

This allowed the accused to collect refunds in the names of 108 individuals, in the total amount that reached nearly half a million dollars. The money was sent by the federal government to the accounts belonging to the elven Kazakhstani students he recruited for the scheme.

If convicted of the charges laid against him by the Manhattan district attorney, he could be sentenced to 15 years in prison.

But, to make the matter more interesting, Murmylyuk has also been charged by New Jersey prosecutors of organizing the hacking into a number of retail brokerage accounts and effecting fraudulent trades, which earned him around $1 million.

If convicted of these wire fraud, securities fraud and unauthorized access to computers charges, he can be sentenced to five years in prison and forced to pay $250,000 fine.