A former Orange County social worker was sentenced Monday to more than four years in federal prison after authorities alleged he masterminded a $1 million scheme to use stolen Social Security numbers and other identifying information to get more than $1 million in fraudulent tax refunds, welfare benefits and credit card purchases.

John Tran, a Fountain Valley resident, was ordered to serve 57 months behind bars and to pay approximately $1.1 million in restitution after previously pleading guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States, mail fraud and aggravated identity theft, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Tran — who worked for the Orange County Social Services Administration from 1994 to 2018 — was accused by federal prosecutors of abusing his position of public trust in order to steal personal identifying information from the public agency’s clients, many of whom were reportedly recent immigrants to the United States.

Prosecutors allege that Tran worked with two local tax preparers — Anton Nguyen, owner of Century Travel & Tax, and Rosemary Pham, owner of Victory Tax Service, both of which were based in Westminster — in order to use the stolen identify information to file 433 fraudulent tax returns that generated at least $973,000 in payments from the government.

Tran and his co-defendants also used the stolen identities to open fraudulent bank accounts, credit card accounts and social services cases, prosecutors said. Proceeds from the alleged schemes were “laundered and structured to avoid detection by law enforcement and banks,” according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office statement.

In one instance cited by prosecutors, Tran used a credit card account opened in someone else’s name to pay for skin care products, purchases at Costco and sports gambling.

Another time, prosecutors said, Tran convinced a recent immigrant who was one of his client’s to allow him to open a credit card under the client’s name and to charge approximately $14,000 to the account. The client allowed Tran to use the credit car because he believed Tran “was a powerful government official who had control over the victim’s (Social Security) benefits,” prosecutors added.

In all, prosecutors estimated, Tran obtained around $973,000 in fraudulent tax refunds, $44,000 from the credit accounts and $92,000 from the Orange County Social Services Administration.

Nguyen was sentenced last month to 41 months in prison, prosecutors said, while Pham is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to federal charges.

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