WASHINGTON (AP) - Nearly 1,300 prison inmates wrongly received more than $9 million in tax credits for homebuyers despite being locked up when they claimed they bought a home, a government investigator reported Wednesday.

The investigator said 241 of the inmates were serving life sentences.

In all, more than 14,100 taxpayers wrongly received at least $26.7 million in tax credits that were meant to boost the nation's
slumping housing markets, said the report by J. Russell George, the Treasury Department's inspector general for tax administration.

Some taxpayers received the credit for homes purchased before the tax break was started. In other cases, multiple taxpayers
improperly used the same home to claim multiple credits.

Investigators found one home that was used by 67 taxpayers to claim credits.