Krystle Marie Reyes, Oregon Woman, Accused Of Using TurboTax To Scam Her Way Into $2.1 Million Tax Refund

Krystle Marie Reyes of Salem, Ore., has been arrested for scamming her way into a $2.1 million state income tax refund, authorities said Monday.

According to the charges, the 25-year-old woman used TurboTax to falsely report wages of $3 million on her 2011 personal income tax return. It is said to be the largest tax scam by an individual in Oregon's history.

Reyes had opted for the cash to be placed on a Visa card which she had recently reported stolen. It was only when she requested a new card that Reyes drew attention to herself.

She allegedly spent more than $200,000 on a car and other purchases before authorities reviewed her case for a second time and realized the inaccuracies.

According to the probable cause statement obtained by The Oregonian, Reyes spent $13,000 in Marion County over two days in February, $26,000 in March and more than $35,000 in April. The fraud was discovered May 7 by the issuer of the debit card after Reyes reported a second card as lost or stolen.

Oregon Department of Justice agents arrested Reyes last Wednesday at a Northeast Salem address.

Officials are apparently stunned at how easy it was for Reyes to pull off the tax fraud.

They've got some explaining to do to restore the confidence of Oregonians, state Rep. Vicki Berger, R-Salem, who serves as co-chair of the House Revenue Committee, told OregonLive.com.

But according to a report from The Inquisitr, several officials from the Oregon Revenue Department reviewed the tax return with its huge income claim before it was approved and the refund sent out.

Our processing system did flag (Reyes' tax return) for manual review. We manually reviewed it and our internal controls failed. Someone did approve a $2.1 million refund.

Lawmakers plan to investigating the case of Krystle Marie Reyes, to determine if this type of error is an anomaly or something that has to be fixed.

TurboTax's parent company, Intuit, returned the $1.9 million to the state, according to the Inquisitr. Reyes is in jail awaiting arraignment.