One of the co-conspirators involved in a scheme using stolen wage and salary information from hundreds of Pittsburgh-based UPMC employees to file more than 900 fake tax returns plead guilty in federal court Monday, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Thirty-three-year-old Yoandy Perez Llanes plead guilty to one count of aggravated identity theft and participating in a money laundering conspiracy, according to the report. He had previously been indicted on 21 counts of conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering and identification theft and extradited to Pittsburgh in 2015.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Melucci said Mr. Llanes was allegedly one of a number of individuals who took advantage of the thousands of UPMC employee W-2 forms hackers stole and sold on the internet during a breach in 2014, according to the report.
According to Mr. Melucci, Mr. Llanes and his co-conspirators filed 939 fake tax returns using the stolen W-2 forms and obtained roughly $1.4 million in illegal refunds from the Internal Revenue Service. Mr. Llanes reportedly used a portion of the funds to buy Amazon gift cards to purchase electronics and resell them online.
Mr. Melucci said Mr. Llanes was not the ringleader of the operation and an investigation into the case is ongoing, according to the report.
Officials also released the name of another individual involved in the scheme. Maritza Maxima Soler Nordase was arrested in Colombia in March 2016 and is awaiting extradition to Pittsburgh.
Mr. Llanes' sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 18.