United States Attorney Jane J. Boyle announced today that Freddie Lee Jones, a tax return preparer from Plano, Texas, was sentenced Friday by the Honorable United States District Judge Sidney A. Fitzwater to 37 months imprisonment following his October 2002 guilty plea to two counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false tax returns, in violation of Title 26, United States Code, Section 7206(2). Jones was also ordered to pay $647,679.31 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service. Judge Fitzwater ordered that Jones surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on March 4, 2003.

A federal grand jury sitting in Dallas, Texas, returned a 20-count indictment against Freddie Lee Jones on June 26, 2002, charging that he willfully aided, assisted, and advised in the preparation and presentation of numerous false tax returns for 1996 through 1999. Jones has been on bond since his arrest in June, and listed a Plano, Texas, address on the court order setting conditions of release.

In the factual resume filed in court, Jones admitted that from February 1997 through March 2000, he was a tax return preparer and on numerous occasions during that time, he prepared tax returns that he knew were fraudulent. Jones admitted that he represented in the tax returns that the taxpayers were entitled to claim certain deductions, when he knew that the claimed deductions were false and that the taxpayers did not have a right to claim those deductions.