OREGON – Four Portland residents who filed 208 false federal income tax returns that included fraudulent claims for tax refunds between $3,000 and $9,000 per return were sentenced to prison, according to authorities.
The four were involved in a tax fraud scheme to steal more than $1 million in tax refunds, officials said.
The federal government seized assets, including a two-carat diamond engagement ring, a Mercedes Benz 500 and a 1971 Pontiac Firebird, both of which were purchased with $20 bills, officials said.
As part of the investigation, officials said Facebook accounts of multiple co-conspirators showed photographs of stacks of cash, among other things.
Jheraun Dunlap, Ernest Bagsby, Jermaine Moore and Brandi McCall were collectively sentenced to serve more than 14 years in prison by U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones, officials said.
Dunlap, 32, who was previously convicted of bank robbery, was sentenced to serve five years and five months in prison. Bagsby, 37, who was previously convicted of delivery of heroin in Clackamas County, Oregon, was sentenced to serve four years and three months in prison.
Moore, 34, was sentenced to serve three years and nine months in prison, and McCall, 27, was sentenced to serve 12 months and one day in prison.
All four defendants were ordered to pay restitution to the Internal Revenue Service in the amount of $427,896, officials said.
Dunlap electronically filed the false tax returns using stolen identities or identities obtained by Bagsby and Moore. McCall opened stored-value debit cards in her own name to receive the refunds, officials said.
The defendants directed the IRS to deposit the tax refunds onto stored-value debit cards and then the proceeds were shared among the defendants.
In total, the defendants requested more than $1 million in tax refunds.
All four defendants were captured on ATM footage withdrawing cash from stored-value debit cards that held the tax refund proceeds, according to authorities.