TAMPA — School uniforms, Swarovski crystal jewelry, a MacBook Pro and a new iPad were among purchases linked to a pair of ex-Tampa cops during a federal investigation of stolen identity tax refund fraud.
Those details emerged Tuesday after a grand jury filed more charges against Eric Houston, 54, and LaJoyce Houston, 49, a former detective and sergeant at the Tampa Police Department. They are targets of an inquiry that already has sent one woman to prison, with orders to pay the IRS nearly $2.4 million in restitution.
The superseding indictment alleges that the MacBook Pro and iPad, bought at least partly with tax fraud money, were registered to Eric Houston's iCloud account.
Some of the MacBook money came from a debit card that was used to collect $61,660 in fraudulent tax refunds, according to the record. And a receipt for the iPad, linked to another such account, contained LaJoyce Houston's Best Buy rewards number.
The Swarovski jewelry was mailed to LaJoyce Houston's sister, the indictment states, and the school uniforms went to the Houstons' Riverview home. Investigators linked both purchases to an account used to collect a fraudulent refund.
The Houstons were first charged in October, with LaJoyce Houston named in 14 counts and her husband named in nine. That grew this week to 20 counts against her and 18 against him.
He's charged for the first time with aggravated identity theft.
Both also are charged with theft of government property, along with conspiring to commit other crimes, such as wire fraud and money laundering.
Prosecutors allege the two schemed with others — including ex-police informer Rita Girven — to cheat the IRS using names, birth dates and Social Security numbers lifted from law enforcement databases.
Girven, who is the mother of the Houstons' adopted daughter, makes frequent appearances in the federal narrative of the alleged fraud. In some cases, according to the indictment, the debit cards used to collect tax refunds were registered using her name or address.
She pleaded guilty last year to aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to commit wire fraud and is serving 12 years in prison.
The initial indictment alleged the couple conspired with Girven to enrich themselves by $239,117. The new indictment doesn't state a total but seeks a monetary judgment against the Houstons "in an amount to be determined."
Former TPD community service officer Tonia Bright is expected to plead guilty on Friday to two counts of obtaining protected information from a protected computer.
She admitted in her agreement with prosecutors that she provided identities to Girven.
The cases, prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Mandy Riedel, relied on investigations by TPD and IRS Criminal Investigation.
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