Former Bend Resident Sentenced for $311,000 Fruadulent Refund Scheme and for Filing Retaliatory Liens Against IRS Employees

EUGENE, Ore. – On Wednesday, April 16, 2014, U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken sentenced Mark Timothy Ellis, 38, of Oregon City, Oregon, for making a fraudulent claim to the United States and for filing a false lien against a federal employee to serve 12 months and one day in prison and three years of supervised release, and ordered him to pay $311,459 in restitution.

According to court documents, Ellis admitted that he made a false claim to the United States when he filed a series of fraudulent documents with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), including false 1099s and false tax returns, and obtained a fraudulent $311,459 refund based on those false documents.  Ellis also admitted that he filed a false and retaliatory lawsuit and false and retaliatory liens against the IRS employees who were investigating his illegal conduct, including the special agent who was investigating him for tax fraud, as a means of retaliation and intimidation.

This case was investigated by IRS Criminal Investigations and the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott E. Bradford.