Greenbelt, Maryland -U.S. District Judge Roger W. Titus sentenced Charles W. Parker, Jr., age 49, of College Park, Maryland, today to 97 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for conspiring to file false federal income tax returns and six counts of filing false tax returns. A federal jury convicted Parker on Nov. 10, 2015. Judge Titus also entered an order requiring Parker to forfeit and pay restitution of $2,007,568.
The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Acting Assistant Attorney General Caroline D. Ciraolo, of the Justice Department’s Tax Division; and Special Agent in Charge Thomas Jankowski of the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), Washington, D.C. Field Office.
According to evidence presented during the five day trial, from March to June 2009, Parker recruited clients for co-conspirator Penny Jones. Jones, a resident of Idaho, was a tax return preparer who prepared tax returns falsely reporting the amount of taxes withheld and purportedly paid to the IRS. Parker collected financial information from clients and provided the information to Jones for the preparation of the false tax returns. Parker paid Jones to prepare false tax returns for Parker and others. Parker mailed the false tax returns to the IRS for tax years 2005 to 2008, claiming large tax refunds to which the taxpayers were not entitled. In a six month period, Parker caused the filing of 14 false tax returns that fraudulently claimed $7,753,940 in tax refunds.
Parker and his co-conspirators caused the IRS to issue two fraudulent tax refunds totaling $2,007,568. In 2013, Jones was sentenced to 12 years in prison for her role in a scheme to help individuals obtain fraudulent tax refunds from the IRS.
United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein praised the Tax Division and IRS-Criminal Investigation for their work in the investigation. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Leah Jo Bressack and Trial Attorney Erin Pulice of the Department of Justice Tax Division, who prosecuted the case.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
