wmlro.com: jail expected for tax refund fraud
Haroon Amin of Upland, California has pleaded guilty to a complex tax fraud in which he used the identities of innocent, dead, people to make fictitious tax refund claims.
In December 2008, Amin and Ather Ali of Diamond Bar, California, were indicted by a federal grand jury in Riverside, California., on charges of engaging in a scheme to file false returns with the IRS.
They had designed the scheme so as to use the names and Social Security numbers of deceased individuals.
Ali has pleaded not guilty. Ali is scheduled to begin trial on 2 March, 2010.
According to the indictment, in 2002 and 2003 Amin and Ali filed at least 250 fraudulent tax returns, falsely stating that the deceased individuals earned wages from which income tax was withheld. These false returns claimed more than USD2 million in income tax refunds.
Although the IRS rejected the bulk of these refund claims, a number of refund cheques were issued and delivered to addresses controlled by Amin, Ali and their conspirators, including various mailboxes opened by Ali using false forms of identification. Most of these refund cheques were then delivered overseas to be deposited in bank accounts in Armenia and Pakistan.
Amin admitted that he was a knowing participant in this scheme. According to the indictment and statements made at the plea hearing, Amin and his conspirators obtained deceased individuals' Social Security numbers and other identification information from the Internet.
The returns filed as part of the scheme had fictitious Form W-2 wage and tax statements as attachments. Amin created fake W-2 Forms using employer identification numbers that he had obtained from an acquaintance who was a certified public accountant.
Judge Robert H. Whaley scheduled Amin's sentencing for 22 June, 2010. Amin faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a maximum fine of USD250,000.
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