Ten people have been indicted on federal charges of trying to illegally obtain confidential
information on more than 12,000 citizens across the country.
The federal indictment, unsealed today
Investigations, the company’s office manager and seven associated private investigators across the country posed as others in order to get government agencies — including the IRS, the Social Security
Administration and various state employment security offices — to
provide confidential information.
The year-long investigation dubbed, "Operation Dialing for Dollars," also revealed that some of the individuals posed
as representatives of doctors’ offices to get medical or pharmacy
records.
Variety of charges: All 10 defendants are charged with Conspiracy and Wire Fraud and with Aggravated Identity Theft. Seven are charged with Fraudulent Elicitation of Social
Security Administration information. Six are charged
with Solicitation of Federal Tax Information.
According to a release issued by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration’s office, the defendants include Emilio and Brandy Torrella, owners of BNT Investigations, and the company’s office manager, Steven W. Berwick. All are from Belfair, Wash., and are scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Tacoma later today.
The seven non-BNT employees named in the federal indictment as co-conspirators are private investigators from across the country: Victoria J.
Tade of San Diego, Calif.; Megan Ososke of Beverton, Ore.; Esaun G.
Pinto, Sr., and Patrick A. Bombino, both of Brookyn, N.Y.; and Houston,
Texas, residents Darci P. Templeton, Robert Grieve and Ziad N. Sakhleh.
Federal officials say the private investigators had been hired by attorneys, insurance
companies and collection agencies to look into the backgrounds of
opposing parties, witnesses and benefit claimants, and to uncover
assets or income. Among the information that was gathered were names, addresses, Social Security numbers and
other personally identifying information, which, according to the indictment, was given to the Torrellas, who promoted their services to the PIs.
"Pretexters" at work: The Torrellas and their employees then allegedly called, under the pretext of being the people whose ID data they had, various government agencies, financial institutions,
pharmacies and hospitals and asked for "their"
personal records.
Federal lawmen say that from January 2004 to May 2007 a variety of strategies were employed to trick
government agencies into handing over information.
With
the IRS, according to the charges, they would impersonate the taxpayer and ask for past tax
returns, claiming that a bookkeeper was being investigated for
embezzlement.
Some of the alleged pretext situations, according to the court documents, included occasions where individuals would claim to be a hospitalized taxpayer who needed tax returns
to demonstrate to an ability to pay for necessary surgery.
Other times, the defendants allegedly claimed various hardships such as being a battered spouse or facing
bankruptcy, foreclosure or serious illness. In one case, investigators said, the pretexter
tried to claim she needed the information because a child had been
abducted.
The Torrellas then forwarded all the
information they obtained to the private investigators for fees ranging
from $30 to $300 per record, according to the charges.
Potential jail time: Conspiracy is punishable by up to five years in prison.
Wire Fraud is
punishable by up to 20 years
Fraudulent Elicitation of Social Security Administration Information and Solicitation of Federal
Tax Information are each punishable by up to five years in prison.
Aggravated Identify Theft is punishable by a mandatory two year term on
top of any sentence on the underlying offenses.
The investigation involved agents from the Social Security Administration
Office of Inspector General, the Treasury Inspector General
for Tax Administration, the Department of Labor Office of
Inspector General, and the Washington State Employment
Security Department Office of Special Investigations.
