Washington, D.C. - United States Attorney Kenneth L. Wainstein, Rick A. Raven, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Criminal Investigation, Baltimore Field Office, and Dan Black, Deputy Chief Financial Officer, District of Columbia, Office of Tax and Revenue (OTR), announced that Joseph B. Queen, 45, of the 2400 block of 14th Street, NW, Washington, D.C., pleaded guilty today before the Honorable Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, United States District Court Judge, to one count of Conspiracy to Defraud the Government with Respect to Claims, in violation of Title 18 U.S.C. § 286 and to one count of First Degree Theft, in violation of 22 D.C. Code § 3211 in connection with his role in a massive tax fraud conspiracy. Queen faces a statutory penalty of up to 10 years of imprisonment per count, a $250,000.00 fine, an order of restitution, and 3 years of supervised release. Pursuant to the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, Queen faces a likely period of incarceration of 12 to 18 months incarceration. Sentencing is scheduled for April 12, 2005. Queen is the fourth defendant in this case to enter into a plea agreement with the government. The investigation is on-going.

According to information presented to the Court by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sherri L. Schornstein, Queen and other individuals engaged in a conspiracy to file fraudulent federal, D.C., and Maryland income tax returns generating fraudulent refunds, which were split among the participants. The fraudulent income tax returns contained false Forms W-2, Wage and Tax Statements, which either reflected employers for whom the listed tax payer had never worked or falsely overstated wages earned and taxes supposedly withheld by a true employer. A motive for the crimes was to obtain money to purchase heroin.

Queen, acting in concert with another individual and others, filed false income tax returns in his own name and also allowed the second individual to use his home address to have fraudulent refund checks in the names of other individuals mailed. Queen admitted that he conspired to defraud the IRS of $24,376.23, and to defraud the District of Columbia OTR of $26,808.11.

In announcing the guilty plea, U.S. Attorney Wainstein, Special Agent in Charge Rick A. Raven, and Deputy Chief Financial Officer Dan Black, commended the work of IRS Special Agent Charles Jones, OTR Special Agent Joseph Sadler, and staff of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including Legal Assistant Lisa Robinson and Assistant U.S. Attorney Sherri L. Schornstein who is prosecuting the cases.