BALTIMORE, Maryland - Thomas M. DiBiagio, United States Attorney for the District of Maryland, and Vicki S. Duane, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation, announced that Keith T. Moore, age 39, a resident of Baltimore, Maryland, was sentenced today to serve 18 months of incarceration, two years of supervised release, and $93,656 in restitution by United States Chief Judge Benson E. Legg for in connection with his conviction on September 24, 2002 to one count of conspiracy to make false claims on federal tax returns in violation of 18 U.S.C. Section 371.

According to the statement of facts in support of Moore's guilty plea, between July, 1996 and February, 2000, the defendant conspired with others to obtain tax refund money to which they were not entitled from the United States Department of the Treasury by filing false income tax returns. Mr. Moore recruited individuals from the Sandtown area of Baltimore to participate in the scheme by offering to prepare their returns in exchange for a portion of the refund money. Mr. Moore prepared the returns using false income, dependent and federal income tax withholding information. The false information inflated the amount of refunds claimed on the returns. In all, the scheme resulted in the filing of 54 individual federal income tax returns that falsely claimed a total of $198,295 in tax refunds. The IRS actually issued refund checks totaling $97,356 for 29 of the 54 returns. The IRS did not issue checks for the remaining returns because the agency suspected the returns were fraudulent.

The case is a result of a two-year investigation by the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathleen O. Gavin.