An Atlanta man acting as a prisoner advocate was convicted Wednesday of stealing prisoner identities and claiming millions of dollars in fraudulent tax refunds.
A jury found Qadir Shabazz, 40, of Atlanta, guilty in federal court of conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and theft of government funds, all totalling 33 counts.
Shabazz operated a massive, multi-state fraud scheme and fake prison charity that stole thousands of prisoners’ identities, federal officials said.
In 2009, Shabazz started a fraudulent prison charity called Indigent Inmate to provide religious literature and financial assistance to prisoners serving time in state prisons around the country. Federal officials said Shabazz’s employees at Indigent Inmate mailed out thousands of applications to prisons around the country, and they received back through the mail thousands of completed applications containing prisoners’ names, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers.
Once Shabazz was in possession prisoners’ information, he and his co-conspirators filed thousands of fraudulent income tax returns in their names between 2010 and 2012 totaling more than $12 million, officials said.
“Qadir Shabazz preyed upon the desperate hopes of indigent state prisoners from around the country,” said U. S. Attorney John Horn.” “He then claimed millions of dollars in taxpayer funds by filing thousands of false federal income tax returns in the names of those prisoners. Shabazz’s actions show a callous disregard for the needs of the indigent prisoners he promised to help, all while he treated the tax dollars of our hard working citizens like money in his personal piggy bank.”
Several inmates testified at trial that they had sent their information to Indigent Inmate because they hoped they would get some type of assistance while they were incarcerated.
One prisoner said he hoped Indigent Inmate would send him stamps so he could write letters to his parents, while another hoped he would receive religious materials.
Shabazz’s sentencing is scheduled for April 27.
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