HAMMOND- Airrion Blake, 41, of Lansing, Illinois was sentenced before U.S. District Court Joseph S. Van Bokkelen after being convicted during a 3-day jury trial of one count of submitting a false claim to the federal government and one count of theft of government money, announced U.S. Attorney Kirsch.
Blake was sentenced to 36 months’ imprisonment followed by 2 years’ supervised release.
According to court records, Blake stole $149,358.35 from the federal government. Blake filed a false trusts and estates tax return in October 2012 in which he provided fictitious figures for his income, deductions, and tax withholdings, and falsely claimed a refund of $149,358.35. He received a refund based on his filing, deposited the check at a Munster, Indiana bank, and proceeded to spend the funds. Blake repeated his scheme several other times seeking a total of over $1 million of tax-payer money, but those other attempts were denied by the IRS.
This case was handled by the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division. This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Alexandra McTague and Nathaniel Whalen.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
