IRS employee gets prison for fraudulent tax credits

By Christopher Seward

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A Lithonia woman will spend nine months in a federal prison for scheming to obtain first-time home buyer tax credits for family and friends.

Authorities said Catherine Griffin, 46, used her job at the Internal Revenue Service to get the credits for individuals who were not eligible to receive them and who had not purchased a home.

The federal housing credit, first announced in February 2009, offered an $8,000 credit for first-time home buyers. It was later expanded  to offer qualified homeowners a $6,500 credit, which could be claimed on 2009 or 2010 federal taxes. Rules of the initiative stipulated home buyers had to be under contract and had to complete a sale by a certain date.

Authorities said from about July to November 2009, Griffin worked in a Chamblee IRS office, processing taxpayers' amended returns. Using her access to the IRS computer system, she altered taxpayer information for four individuals and was paid $2,000 in exchange.

U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates described Griffin as a temporary IRS employee "working for herself, personally profiting after electronically handing out tax credits.

"Many of the citizens of our community who really do deserve the First Time Buyer Tax Credit should know that this kind of criminal scheme does not pay, and this defendant ultimately did not profit from helping her own friends and relatives.”

U.S. District Judge Timothy C. Batten Sr. sentenced Griffin, who pleaded guilty in March to computer fraud, to nine months in prison and 2 years of  supervised release. She was also ordered to pay restitution of $40,516.