Winfred Moses, Prison Tax Scam, New Jersey 2020

State: New Jersey
Category: Fraud &#038; Financial Crimes
Source: <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-nj/pr/essex-county-new-jersey-man-gets-over-two-years-prison-prison-tax-scam" style="color:#cc0000;" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">DOJ Press Release ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Â Ã¢â‚¬â€

NEWARK, N.J. – A brazen scheme to defraud the government of millions of dollars has landed an East Orange man behind bars. Winfred Moses, 49, was sentenced to 26 months in prison for his role in a conspiracy to file false federal income tax returns on behalf of inmates at the Essex County Correctional Facility.

Moses, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to make and present false, fictitious, and fraudulent claims to the IRS, will also serve three years of supervised release and pay restitution of $200,045.

The scam, which ran from 2013 through August 5, 2014, was hatched by Moses and Reginald Eaford, 46, also of East Orange, and others. Eaford, an inmate at the Essex County Correctional Facility from May 20, 2013, to February 12, 2014, obtained social security numbers, dates of birth, and other information from inmates at the jail.

Moses and Eaford generated false W-2 forms indicating that the inmates had earned income during the relevant tax year and that federal income tax had been withheld from their paychecks. They then filed false federal income tax returns on behalf of the inmates, with the refund checks sent to the Essex County Correctional Facility or to Moses’s East Orange residence.

The proceeds of the fraud were split among Eaford, Moses, and the relevant inmates. In total, Moses and Eaford filed 112 phony tax returns that sought approximately $670,206 in fraudulent refunds.

Moses’s sentence is the latest development in a wide-ranging investigation led by the IRS-Criminal Investigation, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the Internal Affairs Division of the Essex County Jail.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Francisco J. Navarro of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Newark. Defense counsel for Moses is Leigh-Anne Mulrey Esq. of Morristown, New Jersey.