Colorado Tax Defier Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison

for Fraud and Tax Conspiracy

Curtis L. Morris, age 43, of Elizabeth, Colo., was sentenced Monday in Denver to 120 months in prison followed by 3 years of supervised release by U.S. District Court Judge Robert E. Blackburn, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced. Judge Blackburn also ordered Morris to pay $ $1,916,831 in restitution to the IRS.

Morris was found guilty on April 30, 2012, after a three week jury trial, of three counts of mail fraud, seventeen counts of filing false claims against the United States, and one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States. According to the testimony at trial, Armstrong, Morris and others conspired to file false federal income tax returns claiming large tax refunds based upon fictitious federal income tax withholdings taken from bogus Forms 1099-OID for themselves and others. Codefendant Richard Kellogg Armstrong, age 77, of Prescott, Ariz., was sentenced on Aug. 10, 2012, to 9 years in prison followed by 3 years of supervised release.

Kathryn Keneally, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Tax Division, commended the efforts of special agents of IRS – Criminal Investigation Denver Field Office, who investigated the case, and Assistant United States Attorney Kenneth Harmon and Tax Division Trial Attorney Kevin F. Sweeney, who prosecuted the case.