Man guilty of IRS embezzlement scheme

DALLAS, April 15 (UPI) -- A contract worker for the U.S. Internal Revenue Service has been found guilty of embezzling nearly $500,000 in remittance checks, officials say.

Emmanuel Ekwuruke, a Bank of America employee, was found guilty last week of theft, embezzlement, misapplication by a bank employee, as well as theft of public money and aggravated identity theft, ABC News reported.

Brad Miller of Garland, Texas, said he was shocked to find that his $20,000 cashiers' check to the IRS was stolen, telling the broadcaster, "It was beyond my wildest imagination that this theft would be an inside scam. I never before gave it a second thought that my check made out to the IRS would end up in the wrong hands."

Miller's money was part of a criminal haul made by Ekwuruke, who embezzled $485,539 in taxpayer remittance checks, the broadcaster said.

Erkwuruke was sentenced to 66 months in prison. He was a contract employee at one of three commercial banks used by the IRS as "lockboxes" to collect, process and forward checks sent in by taxpayers to government post office boxes, ABC said.