Montgomery Men Nabbed in $900K Tax Refund Scam

MONTGOMERY, AL – Two Montgomery men are facing serious time after admitting to a brazen scheme to steal identities and file over $900,000 in fraudulent tax refunds, announced U.S. Attorney George Beck Jr. Edmund Lee McCall and Antonio Devon Harris, both of Montgomery, have pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.

Court documents reveal the pair, working with accomplices, spent from 2010 to October 2012 pilfering personal information – names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth – from unsuspecting victims. They then used this stolen data to fabricate W2 forms with bogus employment and wage details, filing false tax returns online without the victims’ knowledge. The goal? To divert the refunds directly into prepaid credit cards they controlled.

Once the ill-gotten gains hit the cards, McCall and Harris allegedly spent the money on personal expenses. The scope of the fraud is staggering: over $900,000 in fraudulent refunds were claimed during the conspiracy’s lifespan. Both men now face a maximum of 20 years in prison for the wire fraud conspiracy and an additional two years for aggravated identity theft.

This isn’t McCall’s first rodeo with the law. He’s already serving time for a prior identity theft and credit card scheme that ran from 2004 to 2009. In January 2014, he was convicted of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and wire fraud, along with six counts of aggravated identity theft, resulting in an 18-year sentence. He’s stacking charges now. Harris is set to be sentenced on August 5, 2014, while a sentencing date for McCall has not yet been determined.

The investigation, a multi-agency effort, was spearheaded by the United States Department of Treasury Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division, the United States Postal Inspection Service, and the United States Secret Service. Assistant United States Attorney Denise O. Simpson prosecuted the case, bringing these two to justice.

This case serves as a harsh reminder that identity theft is a serious federal crime with severe consequences. The Grimy Times will continue to follow this case and report on any sentencing developments.

RELATED: Dayton Man Stashed 11 Kilos of Deadly Drugs

RELATED: Alabama Parks Bosses Nabbed in Kickback Scheme