Utah Man Charged with Filing False Claims for Tax Refunds

Stanley Wardle of Spanish Fork, Utah, was indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury in Salt Lake City with nine counts of filing false claims for income tax refunds, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced today. According to the indictment, Wardle prepared one such false claim on his own behalf, through an individual income tax return for 2008, and prepared eight other such false claims on behalf of others. In total Wardle sought false federal income tax refunds of $875,218.

If convicted, Wardle faces a maximum of five years in prison and a maximum $250,000 fine for each count.

An indictment is only an allegation of criminal conduct and is not evidence of guilt. A person is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

This case was investigated by IRS Criminal Investigation and is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Michael Romano and Stuart Wexler of the Justice Department’s Tax Division. More information about the Tax Division and its enforcement efforts can be found at www.justice.gov/tax .