SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Donald Loyde Harned, 72, of Oklahoma, was sentenced today by United States District Judge Garland E. Burrell, Jr. to two years in prison and ordered to pay $219,984.00 in restitution for conspiring to defraud the United States with false claims for federal tax refunds, United States Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.
According to court documents, beginning in 2011, Harned and six other co-defendants operated a tax fraud scheme in which they filed false tax returns using the identities of prison inmates. To execute the scheme, the conspirators incarcerated inside the Susanville Correctional Center obtained the personal identification information of other inmates. They provided this information to those outside the prison, including Harned, who then used this information to prepare and file false income tax returns with the IRS using the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), containing information they knew to be false and claiming refunds to which they knew the inmates were not entitled. Harned was paid by the inmates for each return he prepared and filed, and retained a portion of the false refunds for himself.
"The Earned Income Tax Credit is a refundable tax credit for working individuals and couples, particularly those with children, who earn a low to moderate income," said Michael T. Batdorf, Special Agent in Charge, IRS Criminal Investigation. "Mr. Harned and his co-conspirators devised a scheme to illegally use the EITC for inmates that had no income and did not qualify for the credit. IRS-CI will aggressively investigate these types of prison schemes ensuring the EITC program is applied correctly."
This case was the product of an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Investigative Unit at the California Correctional Center. Assistant United States Attorney Amy Schuller Hitchcock prosecuted the case.
To date, six of the seven individuals charged in this conspiracy have pleaded guilty. The six have been sentenced, including Edwin Ludwig IV, who was sentenced to seven years in prison for leading the scheme. Charges are pending against one remaining defendant. The charges are only allegations; he is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
