A Freeport man was sentenced to 51 months in federal prison for his role in a tax fraud scheme that bilked the IRS and the Iowa Department of Revenue out of nearly a quarter of a million dollars.
Jason Booth, 32, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Frederick J. Kapala in federal court in Rockford on Monday for preparing fraudulent federal income tax returns. Booth was also ordered to pay restitution of $250,126.98, including $159,926.98 to the IRS and $90,200 to the Iowa Department of Revenue.
According to court documents, Booth conspired with others to defraud the U.S. Treasury by obtaining payments through fraudulent claims for individual income tax refunds. Between March 2006 and January 2008, Booth created false tax returns, knowing that the taxpayers whose names he put on the false returns had not authorized him to use false information in the returns.
Some of the taxpayers had authorized Booth to create income tax returns for them, but many did not know him. Due to the false information, the income tax returns claimed refunds that were not actually owed to the taxpayers. After creating the false returns, Booth filed them electronically with the IRS.
When claimed refunds were approved and disbursed by the IRS, the refunds were wired to bank accounts that had been designated by Booth when he electronically filed the false returns. Some of those accounts were owned by Booth, but several were owned by others who conspired with him.
The co-conspirators were allowed to keep a portion of each refund in exchange for the use of their accounts for the deposit of the refunds. They delivered the balance of the refunds to Booth. Booth used the co-conspirators’ accounts because he was not always able to open accounts in his name and because using varied accounts made discovery of his filing false returns less likely.
Booth admitted that as a result of the filing of the false federal income tax returns, $159,926.98 was disbursed by the IRS into the accounts he designated.
Booth pled guilty to the charge on January 16, 2014, and was sentenced Monday. The sentencing was announced by Zachary T. Fardon, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and James C. Lee, Special Agent-In-Charge of the Chicago Field Office of Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation Division. The government was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael D. Love.
Related Federal Cases
- Eric Holub, Tax Withholding Fraud, Iowa 2008 · Iowa
- Tea Lynette Ware, Mail Fraud, Illinois 2016 · Iowa
- Ricardo Fredrick Smith, Mail Fraud, Conspiracy to Commit Mail Fraud, Money Laundering, Illinois 2015 · Illinois
- Quincy Medical Group, Medicare and Medicaid Fraud, Illinois 2023 · Kansas
- Terry L. Gantt, ID Theft and Wire Fraud, Iowa 2012 · Idaho
Key Facts
- State: Illinois
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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