Man Pleads Guilty to Mail Fraud

A man pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland to mail fraud, announced Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and Acting U.S. Attorney Stephen M. Schenning for the District of Maryland.

According to documents filed with the court, from approximately November 2011 through March 2013, Timothy West, 43, along with others, engaged in a scheme to file fraudulent tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), claiming refunds to which they were not entitled. On two separate occasions, West hired a tax return preparer in Temple Hills, Maryland, to prepare returns that reported, among other falsities, that West was entitled to claim as dependents on his return two individuals who were not in fact his dependents. West knew that he was not entitled to claim these individuals as his dependents. As part of the scheme, West and others then used these false tax returns as templates to prepare and file hundreds of additional fraudulent tax returns with the IRS seeking more than $413,000 in refunds.  West caused a tax loss of approximately $284,706 as a result of his actions in furtherance of the scheme.

Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 18, 2017. West faces a statutory maximum sentence of twenty years in prison, a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties.

Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Goldberg and Acting U.S. Attorney Stephen M. Schenning commended special agents of IRS–Criminal Investigation and Treasury Office of the Inspector General, who conducted the investigation, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Erin Pulice and Trial Attorneys William Guappone and Thomas F. Koelbl of the Tax Division, who are prosecuting the case.

Additional information about the Tax Division and its enforcement efforts may be found on the division’s website.