Suspect arrested in UCI Identity Fraud case

UC Irvine police detectives, along with Dallas County district attorney investigators and Fort Worth police officers recently arrested a suspect in UCI’s identity theft case. Michael Tyrone Thomas, 27, was taken into custody at his Fort Worth residence based on an arrest warrant for violation of one count of fraudulent use of identifying information in conjunction with the identity thefts involving UCI graduate and medical students. Thomas was transported and booked into Dallas County Texas Jail with bail set at $300,000.

UCI Police Department Sgts. Tony Frisbee and Shaun Devlin and Cpl. Caroline Altamirano worked closely with the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office for several months investigating the theft of personal information from the Student Resources Department of United Healthcare in Dallas . Thomas allegedly stole the information while he was employed at Student Resources, and he used some of it to file fraudulent income tax returns and obtain refund checks.

UCI detectives continue working on the case, and they anticipate additional arrest warrants will be issued. The Internal Revenue Service also is investigating tax fraud aspects of this case.

UCI became aware of the identity theft in March when students began reporting the problem to the university. When some students attempted to file their federal tax returns, the IRS informed them that a return already had been submitted using their Social Security number. UCIPD has received 163 identity theft reports.

Campus staff – including police, computer-security, student-affairs and other personnel – conducted an exhaustive review of information-security practices at UCI. No breach of security was found at the university.