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March 29, 2021

Medical Practice Employee Sentenced for Impersonating an IRS Employee, Aggravated Identity Theft, Tax and Bank Fraud

On January 6, 2021, in the District of Oregon, Anndrea Jacobs was sentenced for filing false tax returns, false impersonation of an employee of the United States, and aggravated identity theft in connection with her former employment at a medical practice in La Grande, Oregon. In addition, by an amended judgment dated January 11, 2021, Jacobs was sentenced for bank fraud in connection with her former employment at a dental practice in Hood River, Oregon. In September 2018, Jacobs was indicted for numerous Federal offenses, including the impersonation of an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employee.

According to the court documents, Jacobs was involved in a scheme to defraud a former employer by embezzling approximately $1 million between January 2011 and December 2015. In order to conceal her embezzlement activity, Jacobs created false entries in the business books and records that overstated the business' expenses and estimated tax payments. Then Jacobs convinced her former employer to grant her limited Power of Attorney to handle the employer's collection action with the IRS. Jacobs changed her employer's contact information with the IRS to her own and diverted all IRS correspondence and communications to herself. Jacobs then created a fictitious identity as an IRS Taxpayer Advocate, established a phone number and a voicemail account for the fictitious identity, provided her employer with a fictitious IRS tax case number, and purported to assist her employer with the IRS tax collection issues while impersonating an IRS employee.

While on pre-trial release for the aforementioned offenses, from approximately August 2019 through October 2019, Jacobs stole checks from the dental practice in Hood River, Oregon, valued at more than $22,000. On June 9, 2020, Jacobs was indicted for bank fraud.

Jacobs was sentenced to four years' imprisonment and five years' supervised release, and ordered to pay restitution of $1,207,537, and a special assessment of $400. This investigation was worked jointly by TIGTA, IRS-Criminal Investigation, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Source:  The facts in this case narrative come from the following publicly available documents: D. Or., Amended Judg., January 11, 2021; D. Or., Judg., January 6, 2021; D. Or., Indict., June 9, 2020; and D. Or., Indict., September 12, 2018.