Federal Grand Jury Returns Indictment

South Bend, IN—The United States Attorney's Office announced that a Grand Jury sitting in Hammond, Indiana, returned the following Indictment on January 16, 2013:

Jonathan Parahams, Jr., 35, Africa Gunn, 35, Angela White, 31, Alicia Green, 27, and Levelle Sanders, 26, all of South Bend, Indiana, were charged in an Indictment with participating in a scheme to prepare and file approximately 1,189 tax returns making false and fictitious claims from the Northern District of Indiana and elsewhere requesting a total of approximately $3,543,794 in tax refunds.The Indictment alleges that the defendants solicited identifying information of individuals, including their names and social security numbers, to use to file fraudulent 2008, 2009 and 2010 U.S. tax returns and then directed the refunds to be received and deposited into bank accounts controlled by the defendants and others.These charges were filed as the result of an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service.This case has been assigned to and will be prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Frank Schaffer.

The United States Attorney's Office emphasized that an Indictment is merely an allegation and that all persons charged are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty in court.