United States Attorney
Northern District of Texas

1100 Commerce St., 3rd Fl.
Dallas, Texas 75242-1699

Telephone (214) 659-8600
Fax (214) 767-0978

Dallas Man Sentenced to Almost 4 Years in Federal Prison
for Fraudulent Schemes

United States Attorney Jane J. Boyle announced that Curtis R. Howard, age 41, of Dallas, Texas, was sentenced today by the Honorable Sidney A. Fitzwater, United States District Judge, to 46 months imprisonment following his January 2003 guilty plea. Howard pled guilty to offenses arising from two similar but unrelated criminal schemes in which he recruited dozens of individuals to file false tax returns and use "hot checks" to purchase stamps from the U.S. Postal Service. Howard pled guilty to one count of aiding and assisting the preparation and presentation of false tax returns, in violation of Title 26, United States Code, Section 7206(2) and one count of theft from the U.S. Postal Service, in violation of Title 18,United States Code, Section 641. In addition, Howard was ordered to pay $167,131 in restitution as follows: $41,653 to the IRS, $112,708.30 to the U.S. Postal Service, and $12,770.15 to Household Bank, who made refund anticipation loans on false tax returns. Howard has been in federal custody.

The tax charge arises from a scheme in which Howard recruited dozens of individuals to file false tax returns for federal income taxes. Howard provided the individuals with fictitious W-2 wage statements from a bad debt collection service company he owned and ran, called Intervention Reinforcement Bureau. The W-2 forms showed that the individuals had earned over $25,000 in wages and that Intervention Reinforcement Bureau had withheld approximately $6,000 in federal tax withholding. In fact, most of the individuals had never worked for Howard or this company and no withholding had been paid by the company to the IRS for any of the participants in the scheme.

Howard would then direct the participants to electronically file a federal income tax return through H&R Block and other commercial tax preparers, to falsely claim tax refunds for excessive withholding and request a "rapid refund" loan from the preparer. In this way, the participants in the scheme obtained money before the returns could be verified by the IRS and the refund claims denied. Howard admitted that he kept the bulk of the money fraudulently obtained and gave the persons actually filing the returns a few hundred dollars for their role. According to IRS officials, Howard is responsible for the filing of at least 33 false returns related to 1999 taxes on which more than $150,000 in false refunds were claimed.

The other charge involved a scheme in which Howard printed checks for fictitious companies and recruited individuals to take the checks into post offices in the Dallas area and purchase several hundred dollars worth of stamps with the worthless checks. Howard would give the individuals he recruited a few hundred dollars or less for their assistance and then take the stamps, selling them on the street to businesses who were willing to buy them from him. Howard admitted that between 1999 and January 2003, individuals participating in his scheme purchased more than $92,000 in stamps with these "hot checks" he provided.

U.S. Attorney Boyle praised the efforts of the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigations (IRS-CI), Dallas Field Office and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service for their roles in investigating the crimes. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Phillip C. Umphres.

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