Portland Man Sentenced for Tax Refund Fraud

PORTLAND, Ore. – Ricky Lee Greenwood, 32, of Portland, Oregon, was sentenced in federal court for a wide-spread tax refund fraud scheme, announced U.S. Attorney S. Amanda Marshall for the District of Oregon. Today, Greenwood was sentenced to 40 months in prison. The sentence will be followed by three years of supervised release. In October 2013, Greenwood pleaded guilty to aggravated identity theft, wire fraud, and filing a false, fictitious, or fraudulent claim against the government.

According to court documents, Greenwood electronically filed at least 66 false tax returns with fictitious wage and false dependent information, requesting more than $300,000 in fraudulent refunds. Greenwood obtained the names and Social Security numbers of unemployed individuals in order to file fraudulent tax returns in their names. According to court documents, Greenwood also obtained the social security numbers of children and claimed them on the tax returns of unrelated individuals to maximize refundable credits – such as the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Additional Child Tax Credit – and further inflate the fraudulent refunds. Greenwood had more than $296,000 in fraudulent refunds deposited into accounts that he controlled or delivered to addresses he could access. Today, Greenwood was ordered to pay $296,106 in restitution to the IRS.

This case was investigated by the IRS Criminal Investigation Stolen Identity Refund Fraud Task Force. Trial Attorneys Leslie A. Goemaat and Todd P. Kostyshak of the Justice Department’s Tax Division are prosecuting the case.

Additional information about the Tax Division and its enforcement efforts may be found at www.justice.gov/tax.