Timothy West, Mail Fraud, Maryland 2017

A brazen scheme to file hundreds of fake tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has landed one man in hot water.

Timothy West, 43, pleaded guilty to mail fraud in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, announced Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Tax Division and Acting U.S. Attorney Stephen M. Schenning for the District of Maryland.

Between November 2011 and March 2013, West, along with others, hatched a plan to file false tax returns with the IRS, claiming refunds to which they were not entitled.

On two separate occasions, West hired a tax return preparer in Temple Hills, Maryland, to prepare returns that reported, among other falsities, that West was entitled to claim as dependents on his return two individuals who were not in fact his dependents.

West knew that he was not entitled to claim these individuals as his dependents.

As part of the scheme, West and others used these false tax returns as templates to prepare and file hundreds of additional fraudulent tax returns with the IRS, seeking more than $413,000 in refunds.

West’s actions caused a tax loss of approximately $284,706.

Sentencing is scheduled for September 18, 2017.

West faces a statutory maximum sentence of twenty years in prison, a period of supervised release, restitution, and monetary penalties.

Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Goldberg and Acting U.S. Attorney Stephen M. Schenning commended special agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation and Treasury Office of the Inspector General, who conducted the investigation, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Erin Pulice and Trial Attorneys William Guappone and Thomas F. Koelbl of the Tax Division, who are prosecuting the case.