Maryland Man Sentenced to More Than Eight Years in Prison for Scheme to Obtain More Than $7 Million in Fraudulent Tax Refunds

Caused 14 False Tax Returns to be Filed in Just Six Months Claiming $7,753,940 in Refunds

A College Park, Maryland, man was sentenced to 97 months in prison today following his conviction in November 2015 by a federal jury on one count of conspiring to defraud the United States and six counts of filing false income tax returns, announced 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’s (IRS-CI) Washington, D.C. Field Office.

According to the evidence presented at trial, between March and June 2009, Charles W. Parker Jr., 49, recruited clients for co-conspirator Penny Jones, 65, formerly of Rigby, Idaho. Jones, a tax return preparer in Idaho, 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. Parker caused the filing of 14 false tax returns in just a six month period that fraudulently claimed $7,753,940 in tax refunds.

In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Judge Roger W. Titus for the District of Maryland ordered Parker to serve three years of supervised release and pay restitution to the IRS in the amount of $2,007,568. In 2013, Jones was sentenced to 144 months in prison for her role in the scheme.

Acting Assistant Attorney General Ciraolo and U.S. Attorney Rosenstein thanked special agents of IRS-CI, who investigated the case and Assistant U.S. Attorney Leah Jo Bressack of the District of Maryland and Trial Attorney Erin Pulice of the Tax Division, who prosecuted the case.

Additional information about the Tax Division’s enforcement efforts can be found on the division’s website.