Ex-sergeant pleads guilty in false tax returns case

PITTSBURGH – A former U.S. Army sergeant has pleaded guilty to using hacked information from four University of Pittsburgh Medical Center employees to file false tax returns seeking IRS refunds.

Twenty-six-year-old Justin Tollefson, who was a staff sergeant at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Tacoma, Washington, pleaded guilty Wednesday to four counts of false claims against the United States. He is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 30.

Authorities said Tollefson was unsuccessful in his scheme to get more than $56,000 in refunds by filing four false 2014 tax returns.

The case stemmed from an investigation into the hacking of the UPMC system and the filing of some 1,300 false 2014 income tax returns. Authorities said Tollefson used some of the hacked information but wasn’t part of the larger scheme.