According to court documents, from August 2003 through July 2004, Celey worked as a contract employee for the State Department as a file assistant. According to plea documents, Celey admitted he had access to official State Department computer databases in the regular course of his employment, including the Passport Information Electronic Records System (PIERS), which contains all imaged passport applications dating back to 1994. The imaged passport applications on PIERS contain, among other things, a photograph of the passport applicant as well as certain personal information including the applicant’s full name, date and place of birth, current address, telephone numbers, parent information, spouse’s name and emergency contact information. These confidential files are protected by the Privacy Act of 1974, and access by State Department employees is strictly limited to official government duties.

In pleading guilty, Celey admitted that between June 22, 2004, and July 15, 2004, he logged onto the PIERS database and viewed the passport applications of more than 75 celebrities and their families, actors, models, musicians, athletes, record producers, family members, a politician and other individuals identified in the press. Celey admitted that he had no official government reason to access and view these passport applications, but that his sole purpose in accessing and viewing these passport applications was idle curiosity.

Celey is the fourth current or former State Department employee to plead guilty in this continuing investigation. On Sept. 22, 2008, Lawrence C. Yontz, a former Foreign Service Officer and intelligence analyst, pleaded guilty to unlawfully accessing nearly 200 confidential passport files. Yontz was sentenced on Dec. 19, 2008, to 12 months of probation and ordered to perform 50 hours of community service. On Jan. 14, 2009, Dwayne F. Cross, a former administrative assistant and contract specialist, pleaded guilty to unlawfully accessing more than 150 confidential passport files. On March 23, 2009, Cross was sentenced to 12 months of probation and ordered to perform 100 hours of community service. On Jan. 27, 2009, Gerald R. Lueders, a former Foreign Service Officer, watch officer and recruitment coordinator, pleaded guilty to unlawfully accessing more than 50 confidential passport files. Lueders was sentenced on July 8, 2009, to one year of probation and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine. Celey is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 23, 2009.

These cases are being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Armando O. Bonilla of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section, headed by Section Chief William M. Welch II. The cases are being investigated by the State Department Office of Inspector General.

The court found that Camp was a salesmen for a sham mining expense tax scheme called MIDAS, which was offered by a firm called Merendon Mining of Colorado and the Institute for Financial Learning (IFFL).

According to the court, Camp began persuading customers in 2003 to participate in the MIDAS scheme by promising large profits from purported investments in Colorado and Arizona gold mines. The court found that MIDAS participants usually made no investment of their own funds, but instead used funds obtained from the IRS by filing amended tax returns claiming bogus gold mining development deductions to receive large tax refunds for earlier tax years. The court further found that Camp prepared these false amended returns, many of which wrongfully eliminated the majority of his customer’s income tax liabilities for 1997 through 2002. The court also found that Camp charged his customers up to $4,000 each to prepare and file the false amended returns.

The court further found that Camp prepared a legal opinion letter for his customers regarding the applicability of the mining deduction. The court found that Camp is not a certified public accountant, never held an accounting license, and did not consult any legal authority in drafting the opinion. The court held that Camp in fact knew that his customers were not engaged in the business of mining and that MIDAS participants had paid no money toward any mine development, even though his opinion letter falsely stated that “development expenses” claimed by his customers were tax deductible.

The injunction bars Camp from promoting the MIDAS tax scheme and any other false or fraudulent tax plan, preparing or assisting others in preparing any tax form or document, and falsely representing himself as a certified public accountant.

Acting Assistant Attorney General John A. DiCicco thanked Tax Division trial attorneys Jacqueline Brown and Tom Curteman for their handling of the case, and revenue agents Andrew Crabb and Sean Flannery of the Internal Revenue Service’s Small Business/Self-Employed Division for their investigative work.

Over the past decade, the Justice Department’s Tax Division has obtained injunctions against more than 395 tax return preparers and tax-fraud promoters. Information about these cases is available on the Justice Department Web site.