Man Stole Connecticut Executive’s Identity Then Took His $800,000 Tax Refund

A federal tax refund scam that relied on stolen corporate identity has reached a guilty plea in Boston, involving a New York man who impersonated a Connecticut investment executive to walk off with more than $800,000 in federal funds.

Steven Ware, 64, of Yonkers, entered a guilty plea in U.S. District Court to one count of bank fraud and two counts of aggravated identity theft. The charges stem from a scheme that unfolded across multiple states and spanned nearly a year of fraudulent activity.

Back in December 2023, Ware went into a credit union in Tyngsborough, Massachusetts, and opened bank accounts under the name of a legitimate Connecticut-based investment company. But more troubling was the fact that he didn’t just impersonate the company—he posed as one of its actual executives. He used that executive’s real identity, including full name, Social Security number, date of birth, and other personal identifiers, to establish the accounts.

It didn’t take long for Ware to start moving serious money. He returned to the credit union shortly after opening the account and deposited a U.S. Treasury check made out to the company and the executive. The check was for a whopping $810,337.

After it cleared, Ware began draining the funds using a debit card tied to the fraudulent account. Transactions tracked across New York, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts showed spending on retail goods and personal items. But that wasn’t all—Ware went back to the credit union multiple times over the next several weeks, each time pretending to be the executive, and managed to wire over $634,000 of the stolen funds elsewhere.

He was arrested in September 2024 and indicted a month later.

Sentencing is set for October 8, 2025. The bank fraud charge alone carries a potential sentence of up to 30 years in federal prison, five years of supervised release, and a $1 million fine. Each aggravated identity theft charge mandates an additional two-year prison term, plus the possibility of further fines and supervised release.

This case is a textbook example of high-stakes financial identity theft, made worse by the scale of deception and the federal nature of the stolen funds. The use of a real executive’s credentials to access and move money in this way highlights how sophisticated fraud schemes can be—and why banks and credit unions are under increasing pressure to bolster verification systems.

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