KANSAS CITY, Mo. – David M. Ketchmark, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced today that a state prison inmate has been sentenced in federal court for his role in a tax refund scheme.

Kevin D. Dunham, 45, an inmate at the Western Missouri Correctional Center in Cameron, Mo., was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Brian C. Wimes on Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2012, to five years in federal prison without parole.

On Aug. 6, 2012, Dunham pleaded guilty to preparing false tax returns for inmates in 2008 and 2009 while he was incarcerated at the Farmington Correctional Center in Farmington, Mo., and the Western Missouri Correctional Center.

Dunham obtained inmates’ names and Social Security numbers and created false Form 1040EZs. Dunham also prepared false Form W2s on a typewriter he had in his cell, and filed those false Form W2s along with the false Form 1040EZs, which were handwritten. The returns were mailed to inmates’ families outside the prison, who forwarded them to the IRS. The refund checks were then sent to the inmates’ families, who divided the money between themselves, the inmates, and Dunham.

Dunham received approximately $200 to $300 per return, which was paid to his mother; she then deposited some of the money into his prison account.

According to the federal indictment, Dunham filed false tax returns totaling $139,644 in false claims. The IRS actually paid $54,814 in fraudulent refunds.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Roseann A. Ketchmark. It was investigated by IRS-Criminal Investigation.

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