1,300 Prison Inmates Received $9 Million In Home Buyer Tax Credit - The Consumerist

1,300 Prison Inmates Received $9 Million In Home Buyer Tax Credit - The Consumerist:

As always happens when the government puts tons of cash up for grabs, scam-happy people will line up to take advantage of it. And a new report says that nearly 10% of the 15,000 folks caught scamming the government for the recent home buyer tax credit were doing it from behind bars.

According to a report issued by the Treasury Dept.'s inspector general, 1,295 prisoners, including 241 serving life sentences, somehow managed to receive $9.1 million in credits, despite being locked up at the time.

The report clarifies that these were not prisoners filing joint returns with spouses in the outside world, so there's no way these cons could have purchased a home during the period for which the tax credit was available."