Inmate Charged With Filing False Income Tax Returns For Fellow Prisoners

CINCINNATI -- A federal grand jury here has indicted James Jeremy Savage, 40, originally from Springfield, Ohio, charging him with 29 counts of filing false claims for income tax refunds with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Savage was incarcerated in Ohio state correctional facilities in Warren and Madison counties when he allegedly committed the crimes.

Carter M. Stewart, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio and Kathy A. Enstrom, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, Cincinnati Field Office announced the indictment returned yesterday.

According to the indictment, between April 2007 and April 2011, Savage knowingly filed false claims for income tax refunds with the IRS by preparing and filing false federal income tax returns for other individuals.  The intended loss to the IRS due to this fraudulent scheme was approximately $44,675.53

Savage prepared and filed the bogus returns on behalf of other inmates who agreed to pay him in commissary items. The apartment number in the address listed by Savage on many of the returns was allegedly the inmate number for the incarcerated person in whose name the return was filed.
 
Filing false claims with the IRS is punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

“At the IRS, protecting taxpayer money is a matter we take extremely seriously.  An integral part of the agency’s mission involves detecting and catching fraudulent tax refund claims," stated Kathy A. Enstrom, Special Agent in Charges, IRS Criminal Investigation, Cincinnati Field Office.  "The object of these schemes is to defraud the government and the taxpaying public.”

This case is being prosecuted by Senior Litigation Counsel Anne L. Porter and investigated by special agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation.

Savage is currently in custody in Chillicothe Correctional Institution on unrelated state charges.

An indictment merely contains allegations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law.