Woman Goes On Spending Spree After $2.1M Refund On Fraudulent Tax Return

June 9, 2012 at 10:55 am by kniption  

Salem, OR - An Oregon woman was charged after allegedly using a Visa debit card with a $2.1 million balance issued to her after her fraudulent electronic 2011 tax return was approved by the Oregon Department of Revenue. The ruse came to an end only after the woman reportedly lost the card and applied for a replacement.

Authorities allege Krystle Marie Reyes, 25, used the tax preparation software Turbo Tax to file a faked 2011 income tax return with the state in which she reported earnings of $3 million and claimed a refund of $2.1 million. Due to the high dollar amount, the return had to go through a manual review process at the Oregon Department of Revenue in which ‘multiple reviewers’ would need to approve the refund. Oddly, they all did. Once the refund was approved, Turbo Tax issued Reyes a Visa debit card with a $2.1M balance.

“We do not have that many $2.1 million refund claims,” Derrick Gasperini, a Revenue Department spokesman, said. “It absolutely should have been caught and was not.”

What transpired immediately after is what you would likely expect from a person holding a Visa debit card with a $2.1 million balance.…