Tax Crimes and Identity Theft

November 17, 2008 – 3:25 pm

A man from St. Paul Minnesota has been charged with seven felony tax crimes and at least one account of identity theft. Johnny Opara, 55, was charged with three counts of filling false property tax returns. He was also charged with four counts of filing false property and rent credit tax returns, and one count of identity theft.

Opara was hired to by several people to do their tax returns. They later came to find out that he never files them. He then lies to police and said that he did prepare one tax return but the check was sent to the wrong state.

The police later found out that Opara had received fraudulent refunds from claiming earnings from jobs that he did not have. Opara didn’t stop there he also filed a false property rent tax credit and got a 1,100 refund that he received in 2004. Fortunately the rest of the fraudulent tax returns refund checks were blocked and Opara did not receive them.

Twelve people in all signed an affidavits saying that Opara had filed income tax returns in their names without their consent. Opara also admitted to filing one tax return for a woman and listed dependants that she did not have and he did this without her knowing. Opara claims that he had a stroke and he practices filing tax returns to keep his mind sharp. He claims that he never intended to send any of them. Some of them were sent by accident but it was too late to cancel them.

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