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Press Release

Inmate Sentenced for Filing False Tax Returns While in Alabama Federal Prison

For Immediate Release
Office of Public Affairs

David Marrero, a federal inmate in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons, was sentenced today to 46 months in prison for tax fraud committed while in prison, the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced. Twenty-four months of the sentence imposed will run concurrent with Marrero’s current 10 year federal sentence, and 22 months will run consecutive to his 10 year sentence. Marrero had pleaded guilty in December 2012 to filing false claims.

 

According to court documents, while serving his federal sentence in Montgomery County, Ala., Marrero began sending various false documents to the IRS and to the federal judge who had presided over his case in Florida. Among the documents Marrero sent were fictitious money orders and false tax returns making claims for refunds, including one tax return claiming a $2,719,438 refund—the amount of restitution Marrero had been ordered to pay following his conviction in Florida. The fraudulent tax returns were based upon false IRS Forms 1099-OID on which Marrero had fraudulently claimed that various companies withheld a substantial amount of federal taxes from him when, in fact, the companies had withheld nothing. Marrero also used financial documents he had obtained from other people, without their knowledge or consent, as supporting documentation for his fraudulent claims.

 

Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Tax Division Kathryn Keneally commended the efforts of special agents of IRS - Criminal Investigation, who investigated the case, and Tax Division Trial Attorneys Jason Poole and Justin Gelfand, who prosecuted the case.

 

Form 1099-OID schemes are one of the IRS’s “Dirty Dozen” tax scams. Additional information about the Tax Division and its enforcement efforts may be found at www.justice.gov/tax.

Updated September 15, 2014

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Press Release Number: 13-352