Maryland Man Convicted in Scheme to Obtain More Than $7 Million of Fraudulent Tax Refunds

Caused 13 False Tax Returns to be Filed in Just Four Months Claiming $7,470,065 in Refunds

A federal jury convicted Charles W. Parker Jr., 49, of College Park, Maryland, today of one count of conspiring to defraud the United States and six counts of filing false income tax returns.

The conviction was announced by Acting Assistant Attorney General Caroline D. Ciraolo of the Justice Department’s Tax Division, U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein of the District of Maryland and Special Agent in Charge Thomas Jankowski of the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), Washington, D.C. Field Office.

According to evidence presented during the trial, from March to June 2009, Parker recruited clients for co-conspirator Penny Jones, a tax return preparer in Idaho, who prepared tax returns falsely reporting the amount of taxes withheld and purportedly paid to the IRS. Parker collected financial information from clients and provided it to Jones for the preparation of the false tax returns. Parker paid Jones to prepare false tax returns for Parker and others. Parker mailed the false tax returns to the IRS for the years 2005 to 2008, claiming large tax refunds to which the clients were not entitled.

On May 26, 2009, after Parker paid Jones to prepare a false tax return for two co-conspirators who were residents of Atlanta, Georgia, caused the IRS to issue a tax refund to the co-conspirators of $1,723,693. On June 3, 2009, Parker emailed the co-conspirators directing them to wire funds to Parker’s bank account. The next day, the co-conspirators transferred $182,370 into Parker’s account.

The tax returns filed by Parker and his co-conspirators requested fraudulent refunds totaling $7,470,065. As a result of these false returns, the IRS issued fraudulent tax refunds to Parker and his coconspirators totaling $2,007,568. In 2013, Jones was sentenced to 120 months in prison for her role in a scheme to help individuals obtain fraudulent tax refunds from the IRS.

Parker faces a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for the conspiracy, and a maximum sentence of five years in prison for each of the six counts of filing a false tax return. U.S. District Judge Roger W. Titus has scheduled sentencing for March 28, 2016 at 11:00 a.m.

Acting Assistant Attorney General Ciraolo and U.S. Attorney Rosenstein praised the Tax Division and IRS-CI for their work in the investigation. Acting Assistant Attorney General Ciraolo and U.S. Attorney Rosenstein thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Leah Jo Bressack and Trial Attorney Erin Pulice of the Justice Department’s Tax Division, who are prosecuting the case.