Officials to crack down on dividend cheaters
ANCHORAGE - The state is getting tougher on people who cheat to get an Alaska Permanent Fund dividend check.
The Alaska Department of Revenue, among other things, is starting to enforce an old penalty: Cheat on your PFD and lose the next five annual checks.
The agency also is trying to hire a second fraud investigator and is hoping to increase penalties for cheaters. Also, for the first time, the department plans to do a complete audit of dividend applications this spring, which could mean investigating them at random.
"We just revamped our whole program," said Sharon Barton, who in April took over the division that oversees the state's annual oil-wealth check distribution.
The state this fall sent out about 600,000 dividend checks worth $1,107 apiece. Revenue staffers rejected about 20,000 dividend applications.
Dividend recipients are supposed to be residents who have lived in Alaska the entire previous year. People are not allowed to leave for more than 180 days in the year and still get a dividend, although there are specific allowable absences, like for college, the military and to get medical treatment.
Barton said part of the department's focus is to do a better job than in years past of running down tips about dividend fraud.
The state got 832 tips on its fraud hot line this year. The division's sole fraud investigator checked them all out, according to the state. His work resulted in 190 dividend applications denied and another 132 people caught for getting the dividends in previous years when they shouldn't have.
Dan Boone, who became the dividend fraud investigator this spring, said he has seen several identify-theft cases. In one, the state got a tip about an illegal alien who had applied for a dividend after assuming the identity of a dead man from Puerto Rico. Boone investigated and, working with Anchorage police and federal immigration officials, the tip led to the breakup of an identity-theft ring.
He also has dealt with cases of people from the Lower 48 attempting to get a dividend. Some had just moved from Alaska but wanted to get one last check. And, in one case, an Alaska woman applied for another dividend in the name of her stepson in the Lower 48.
Problem was, her stepson didn't get along with her and turned her in, Barton said.
Major cheaters can get jail time. A man who was busted in Juneau a few years ago for forging five names of ex-Alaskans to get dividends in their names got a three-month sentence.
In smaller cases, the state has chosen not to go to court. However, people caught cheating are required to give the money back, plus interest, or face collection agencies and a lien on their property.
Cheaters, under the new enforcement push, also are made ineligible to receive the next five dividends. The five-year ban has long been on the books but is just now being widely enforced because officials used to think it required court action.
Barton also wants to stiffen the penalties. She is attempting to persuade the Legislature to let her division impose a $3,000 fine on dividend cheaters without the state having to go to court. And she wants another investigator to join Boone in hunting down fraud.
The Revenue Department also plans to implement a major audit program this spring.