March 2, 11

NEWS / Alabama Man Sentenced to 36 Months in Prison for Tax Fraud and Identity Theft

WASHINGTON – Jeffery Leon Ceaser, a resident of Montgomery County, Ala., was sentenced today to 36 months in prison, the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced today. In addition to the prison sentence, Ceaser was also ordered to $621,738.41 in restitution to the United States and serve three years of supervised release.

According to court documents, between March 2009 and September 2009, Ceaser conspired with others to defraud the United States by filing 158 false federal income tax returns. Ceaser fraudulently obtained names and Social Security numbers of individuals and provided that information to Ora Mae Adamson, who filed the false tax returns without authorization from the individuals. The tax returns falsely claimed the first-time home buyer credits and fuel tax credits. The refunds from the false tax returns were deposited into bank accounts controlled by Ceaser and other co-conspirators. In all, the IRS disbursed $621,738 in false tax refunds. Adamson has also pleaded guilty to conspiracy and identity theft charges and is scheduled to be sentenced on March 10, 2011.

John A. DiCicco, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Tax Division and Leura G. Canary, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Alabama, commended the IRS special agents who investigated this case and Tax Division trial attorneys Jason Poole and Michael Boteler, who prosecuted the case.

More information about the Justice Department’s Tax Division and its enforcement efforts is available at www.usdoj.gov/tax/. Additional information about the Justice Department’s recent efforts to combat fraudulent claims for the first-time home buyer tax credit is available here .

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2011/March/11-tax-268.html

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