An Internal Revenue Service employee who worked for the Taxpayer Advocate Service, where her job was to help taxpayers resolve their identity theft problems, pleaded guilty to stealing identities and orchestrating a tax-fraud scheme involving up to $1.5 million in fraudulent income tax returns. Nakeisha Hall, 39, entered her guilty pleas Monday before U.S. District Judge Karon O. Bowdre to theft of government funds, aggravated identity theft, unauthorized access to a protected computer and conspiracy to commit bank fraud and mail fraud affecting a financial institution. She acknowledged in her plea that the tax fraud conspiracy had an intended loss to the IRS of between $550,000 and $1.5 million. Hall agreed to restitution and forfeiture of $438,187, representing funds actually paid out by IRS as a result of the scheme. Hall’s sentencing is scheduled June 29. Hall worked in the Taxpayer Advocate Service office in Birmingham from July 2007 to November 2011. Since November 2011, Hall has worked in TAS offices in Omaha, Neb., New Orleans, La., and Salt Lake City, Utah. TAS is responsible for assisting taxpayers who are having difficulties with the IRS. TAS works with victims of identity theft and assists them in removing fraudulent tax information from their accounts and in filing corrected tax returns, if necessary. “Ms. Hall used her IRS access to compromise taxpayers’ identities and try to steal more than $1 million dollars from the U.S. Treasury,” said U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama Joyce White Vance in a statement. “Taxpayers must be able to trust that IRS employees will protect their sensitive information, not steal it and corrupt it for personal gain. I thank the TIGTA and IRS-CI investigators who helped my office ensure that this crime was prosecuted and punished.”