Two Montgomery Men Sentenced for $900K Tax Refund Scheme

Montgomery, Alabama - Yesterday, two Montgomery men were sentenced for their roles in a tax refund scheme, announced U.S. Attorney George L. Beck Jr. for the Middle District of Alabama.

Edmund Lee McCall (39) was sentenced to 108 months imprisonment for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and 24 months for aggravated identity theft. When combined with his conviction for bank and wire fraud and aggravated identity theft from a prior case, McCall will serve a total of twenty-years in prison for his financial fraud crimes. McCall’s Co-Defendant, Antonio Devon Harris (39), was sentenced to 87 months imprisonment for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and 24 months for aggravated identity theft. Both defendants’ sentences will be followed by 3 years of supervised release.

From 2010 to 2012, McCall and Harris employed a scheme to file false tax returns by obtaining the names, social security numbers, dates of birth, and other personal identifying information of unsuspecting individuals. They would use this information to create W2s with fraudulent employee and wage information and would then file fraudulent income tax returns on-line.

As part of the scheme, McCall and Harris also created a fraudulent tax preparing business. They used this business as a front to order a large number of pre-paid credit cards and had a false tax return proceeds diverted to the cards for their own use. Using this scheme, they were able to steal approximately $920,872.00 from the Internal Revenue Service. Both men were ordered to make restitution in that amount to the IRS.

This case was investigated by the United States Department of Treasury Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division, the United States Postal Inspection Service, and the United States Secret Service. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Denise O. Simpson.

PRESS CONTACT: Clark Morris
Email: usaalm.press@usdoj.gov
Telephone: (334) 551-1755
Fax: (334) 223-7617