Debra Baer
July 11, 2008
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Local police say authorities in Texas have arrested a man in connection with an identity theft case affecting more than 1,000 students at the University of California, Irvine. More from KPCC's Debra Baer.

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Debra Baer: UC Irvine campus police say the suspect is Michael Tyrone Thomas of Fort Worth. He'd worked at UnitedHealthcare in Dallas, the company that manages medical plans for UCI's graduate and medical school students. Police have accused Thomas of stealing the identities of more than 1100 students.

Irvine campus police chief Paul Hennessey says his department began investigating in March when students started filing their tax returns.

Paul Hennessey: They were notified by the IRS that someone had already filed a tax return and social security number – obviously fraudulent. At that point, it initiated our investigation to determine how this info was accessed, how it was accessed, and then we have been working with the IRS on this portion of the IRS tax fraud portion of this case.

Baer: Hennessey says the suspect may have filed more than 160 false returns. Authorities in Texas arrested Thomas Monday on a state fraud charge. The Internal Revenue Service is still investigating. United Healthcare has offered credit protection to the UC Irvine students.