IRS Celebrity Snoop Gets Three Years' Probation

An Internal Revenue Service employee who improperly accessed the financial information of 200 celebrities and sports figures was sentenced to three years’ probation, 60 hours of community service and a $1,000 penalty.

John Snyder, 56, looked up information on IRS computers about celebrities such as Alec Baldwin, Kevin Bacon, Chevy Chase, Sally Field and Vanna White, as well as Cincinnati Reds players and Cincinnati Bengals coach Marvin Lewis. Snyder had been employed by the IRS since 1991. He was charged with looking up the information between 2003 and 2008.

A complaint was filed against him in May, and he pleaded guilty last month (see IRS Employee Pleads Guilty to Celebrity Snooping).

“The unauthorized access of taxpayer information by IRS employees violates not only the law but also the public trust,” said J. Russell George, Treasury Inspector General for Investigations at the Tax Administration, in a statement.

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