On April 5, 2019, in the Western District of North Carolina, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) temporary employee Alicia Gambrell was sentenced to one count of theft of Government property. Gambrell was previously indicted on eight counts of the offense in March 2018, and pled guilty to one count in December 2018.

According to the court documents, from about March 2016 through about April 2017, Gambrell was an employee of a temporary employment agency at the IRS Lockbox Facility located in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The IRS, working with a Federally insured bank, operated a lockbox center in Charlotte. “Lockbox” is a process through which, among other things, Federal tax remittances, that is tax payments made payable to the IRS and/or the Treasury Department in the form of checks and money orders, were mailed by taxpayers to designated post office boxes for processing. Temporary employees hired through the temporary agencies and screened by the IRS work in the lockbox facility opening mail.

While working at the IRS Charlotte Lockbox Facility, Gambrell stole approximately 34 checks and money orders made payable to the IRS and totaling approximately $57,000. She then altered the payee information on the checks and money orders to reflect her own name. For example, she changed “IRS” to “MRS” then inserted “Gambrell.” Afterwards, she deposited the altered checks and money orders into accounts in her name or cashed the checks or money orders.

Gambrell was sentenced to 16 months’ imprisonment followed by two years of supervised release. She was further ordered to pay $29,302.16 in restitution to the IRS.

Source:  The facts in this case narrative come from the following publicly available documents: W.D.N.C. Indict. filed Mar. 21, 2018; W.D.N.C. Judgment filed May 1, 2019; and W.D.N.C. Crim. Docket as of May 2, 2019.