Two of the seven people indicted in an identity theft and telephone fraud case this week used to work for the Revenue Department. Word of the indictments sent the department to its files of past employees.

Department spokesman Maura Browning says one of the people indicted, Erica Kelley, was asked to leave in 2003 because of an internal investigation that Browning says seems related to the indictments.  The other woman, Krystal Stephens, worked for eleven months in two years as a seasonal tax processor.

She says employees have to sign confidentiality agreements and are trained extensively in confidentiality of the records they’ll handle. Browning says Kelley obtained only about five records from the department. 

One of the other people indicted was an employee of a nursing home.  The targets of the identity theft were mentally disabled, and other people living in group homes.  

Browning says the department has several ways to monitor employees and their computer uses, and has an internal compliance group that performs unannounced compliance reviews to make sure confidential information is secure.

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