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Press Release
The Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont stated that Craig Lee Workman, age 42, a Florida man, was sentenced to five years in federal prison today by the Honorable J. Garvan Murtha in U.S. District Court in Brattleboro, Vermont.
Workman pleaded guilty to a fraudulent tax refund scheme that he operated in Florida and Vermont during 2010-12. Having obtained identification information for over 120 persons, Workman filed fraudulent income tax returns in their names, claiming nearly a million dollars in tax refunds. On each of the returns, he listed bank routing and account numbers for bank accounts that he controlled in Florida and Vermont, and requested direct deposit of the claimed refunds. The IRS intercepted the bulk of the fake filings, but 23 got through, resulting in over $179,000 being deposited by the U.S. Treasury into Workman’s bank accounts.
Workman has a lengthy criminal history going back 20 years, mostly in Florida. Judge Murtha rejected his pleas for leniency today at his sentencing hearing in Brattleboro, and imposed a sentence of five years, to be followed by a supervised release term of three years. Judge Murtha also ordered Workman to repay the money after his release.
Workman has been in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service since his arrest in Florida in May, 2013. The case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation Division. Workman was represented by Federal Public Defender David McColgin. The United States was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney William Darrow.