April 28, 2016

Two men who conspired to file more than 1,200 false tax returns using stolen identities were sentenced to prison. Ernest James Simmons Jr., 29, of Phenix City, Alabama, was sentenced to 24 months and 15 days in prison followed by five months of home detention and Calvin J. Perry, 28, of Atlanta, Georgia, was sentenced to 32 months in prison. Simons and Perry each pleaded guilty in December 2015 to one count of conspiracy to defraud the government with respect to filing false income tax refund claims and one count of aggravated identity theft. According to court documents and evidence presented at the sentencing hearing, between 2010 and 2012, Simmons and Perry conspired with Perry’s mother, Pamela Ann Smith, to run a large-scale stolen identity refund fraud scheme from Smith’s tax return preparation business, Jaycal Tax Service, in Phenix City. Simmons was directly connected to false returns claiming more than $700,000 in fraudulent refunds and Perry was directly connected to false returns claiming over $1 million in fraudulent refunds. DOJ

Tagged in: Tax Fraud,