ALBANY, GA -
Four South Georgia men plead guilty in Albany Federal Court to stealing close to $400,000 from the Federal Government through an IRS tax refund scheme. Federal prosecutors say inmates in a Georgia prison helped run the thefts.
The IRS told Congress last year that Georgia ranked second nationwide in inmates filing fraudulent tax returns, and these cases show the Feds are cracking down on the schemes.
Federal prosecutors say in 2006 the three Sumter County men and one from Loganville helped prison inmates fill out phony W-2 tax forms in the library of the prison, and submit more than 150 phony tax returns seeking refunds.
James Wiley the Third, Marvin Jones Junior, and Towan White, all from Sumter County Thursday plead guilty to one count of Conspiracy to defraud the federal government with respect to claims.
Damico Evans plead guilty to the same charge Friday afternoon. Prosecutors say in their June indictment that in 2006 the men prepared more than 150 false federal income tax returns for both prison inmates and received more than $392,000 in IRS refund checks.
The indictment says Jones father, Marvin Jones Senior and Russell Navarre, while serving time in an unnamed Georgia prison, were given the information and they typed up the fraudulent W-2 forms in the library of the prison, and then filed them.
The indictment says on six occasions Jones Senior would join his son on a telephone conference call to the IRS Information Line to track the refund checks. Last year in a report to Congress, the IRS said thousands of Georgia inmates scammed the federal government for a total of $3.6 million, the second worst state for inmates filing phony tax returns.
They said the problem was federal law that protected taxpayer identities, but a 2008 inmate tax fraud act allowing the IRS to share information with state and federal agencies could help them catch offenders.
Not unexpectedly Prosecutors and IRS officials said they were not ready to talk to us about this case, while awaiting Navarre's plea in the same indictment, but the IRS says many inmates do file legitimate tax returns, and they are working to stop this fraud that costs millions of tax payer dollars.
Jones Senior is already serving a life sentence for a 1992 murder in Albany, and got an additional ten year sentence for a previous tax scheme in 2007. Jones' daughter Shanika Jones was sentenced to six and a half year in prison for her part in that scheme in 2007.
Now his son could face up to ten years in prison for his guilty plea. All these men except White were released on bond after their guilty pleas. They will be sentenced April 19th.
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Albany Federal Courthouse
Marvin Jones, Junior
