North Port Couple Sentenced To Prison For Filing A False Tax Refund Claim

Tampa, FL – U.S. District Judge James D. Whittemore today sentenced North Port residents James Dee Jaeger (62) and Lora Anne Jaeger (50) to 18 months each in federal prison. The Jaegers both pleaded guilty on April 21, 2014 to one count of filing a false tax refund claim.

According to court documents and evidence presented at sentencing, on March 31, 2009, James Dee Jaeger and Lora Anne Jaeger electronically filed a joint federal income tax return with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from the Middle District of Florida, falsely claiming a refund in the amount of $344,672. The fraudulent tax refund claim filed by the Jaegers was consistent with a bogus theory that the federal government maintains secret accounts for U.S. citizens and that taxpayers can gain access to the accounts by issuing 1099-OID Forms to the IRS. Under this theory, the taxpayer first files a false information return, such as a Form 1099 Original Issue Discount (OID), to justify a false refund claim on a corresponding tax return. In this case, the IRS did not issue the fraudulent tax refunds claimed by the Jaegers. In addition to their own fraudulent tax refund claim, the Jaegers advised and encouraged other individuals to file similar fraudulent tax returns claiming greater than $2,500,000 in fraudulent refunds.

This case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Matthew J. Mueller and Trial Attorney Kevin C. Lombardi of the Department of Justice, Tax Division.