Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: March 21, 2007
Contact : Sue McKinney
CONSPIRACY TO FILE FALSE CLAIMS
United States Attorney Maxwell Wood, Middle District of Georgia, announced that LOUIS DEVAN COBB, JR., RODERICK DUANE WHITAKER and THEWANDER DONDRELL DAVIS each entered a plea of guilty to Conspiracy to File False Claims with the Internal Revenue Service, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 286.
COBB entered a plea of guilty to Count One of the Indictment, Conspiracy to File False Claims on March 19, 2007; WHITAKER entered a plea of guilty to Count One on March 12, 2007; DAVIS entered a plea of guilty to Count One today, March 21, 2007. The violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 286 carries a maximum sentence of up to 10 years in prison, a $250,000.00 fine and three years of supervised release. The date for sentencing will be determined by the Court.
The defendants devised and carried out a scheme to obtain tax refunds from the Internal Revenue Service through the filing of false tax returns and related forms obtaining refunds to which the taxpayers were not entitled. COBB operated a tax return preparation business in Albany, Georgia in 2002 known as TAX PLUS and in 2003 he operated his business through a JACKSON HEWITT TAX SERVICE franchise. All three defendants persuaded taxpayers to provide their names, social security numbers, dependent information and W-2 forms for the purpose of having their tax return prepared. The defendants would then use the taxpayers information to create new W-2 forms that were either completely fictitious, or which were falsified by increasing the income or tax withholding figures. The defendants also created false Schedule C, Profit or Loss From Business (Sole Proprietorship) claiming losses from businesses that either did not exist, were not active during the time period, or which were active but did not incur the loss stated on the schedule. The defendants retained the refunds entirely or retained large portions of the refunds from the taxpayers.
“IRS Criminal Investigation is committed to aggressively investigate return preparers and individuals who blatantly choose to disregard the law and prepare and file false tax returns”, stated Rebecca A. Sparkman, Special Agent in Charge. “Dishonest return preparers can cause many headaches for taxpayers who fall victim to their schemes. Therefore, taxpayers should choose carefully when hiring a tax preparer. Buyer Beware! If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”
The case was investigated by Special Agent Brian Slemons of the Internal Revenue Service. The prosecution was handled by Assistant United States Attorney Alan Dasher. Question concerning this case should be directed to Sue McKinney, Public Affairs Specialist, United States Attorney’s Office, at (478) 621-2602.