Press Release
FORMER CHURCH PARISHIONER SENTENCED FOR FILING FRAUDULENT TAX REFUND CLAIMS
June 16, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jeffrey H. Sloman, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Daniel W. Auer, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Criminal Investigation Division, Melissa T. Chedotal, Special Agent in Charge, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, and Robert Parker, Director, Miami-Dade Police Department, announced today that former St. Brendan's Catholic Church Parishioner, Pablo Gehr, 32, of Miami, FL, was sentenced to 40 months' incarceration, to be followed by 3 years of supervised release. Gehr was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $169,459.51. Gehr had pled guilty on February 27, 2009 to making and filing fraudulent tax refund claims against the IRS, and had been detained pending today's sentencing.
On January 6 ,2009, Gehr was charged in a twenty-four count indictment with making and presenting fraudulent refund claims against the United States, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 287 and 2. During his plea hearing, Gehr admitted that during tax years 2006 and 2007, he filed approximately 67 tax returns for persons living in Miami-Dade County, many of whom were parishioners at two local churches.
According to statements made in court during the plea hearing, Gehr offered to prepare tax returns for free as a service to the community. Gehr inflated the deductions and credits on these tax returns without the filers' knowledge. Gehr's actions caused the IRS to send the refund checks to bank accounts he controlled, again without the taxpayers' knowledge or consent. In some instances, Gehr paid the tax filers an amount that they were expecting, while keeping the difference. In other instances, however, he kept the entire tax refund for himself. Gehr was not a certified public accountant, had no formal accounting or tax preparation training, and was not affiliated with any IRS-sponsored tax preparation programs.
In total, the fraudulent tax filings sought more than $272,000 in fraudulent tax refunds. More than $206,000 of this amount was deposited into accounts controlled by Gehr.
Mr. Sloman commended the investigative efforts of the Internal Revenue Service, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, and the Miami-Dade Police Department. This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Aurora Fagan.
A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.
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