SACRAMENTO, CALIF.— An Oklahoma state prison inmate plead guilty for his role in filing 247 fraudulent federal tax returns, which resulted in $219,000 in refunds.
Edwin Ludwig IV, 34, currently an inmate in an Oklahoma state prison, plead guilty last week to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and two counts of filing false claims for federal tax refunds, U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner stated.
The refunds were used for personal expenditures, including the purchase of prepaid debit cards, and adding money to inmates’ prison commissary accounts, according to officials.
This is what the federal government said the evidence indicated:
- Beginning in March 2011, Ludwig and three fellow inmates in the California Correctional Center in Susanville obtained personal identification information of other inmates at the correctional center.
- Ludwig then provided the information to co-defendants on the outside who prepared and filed false income tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service, claiming refunds to which the inmates were not entitled.
- False tax returns also were filed in some of the defendants’ own names.
- The defendants caused the false refund checks to be deposited to various bank accounts they controlled.
- The investigation into the conspiracy began on January 11, 2012, when a correctional officer found some records behind Ludwig’s personal locker.
In all, the conspiracy resulted in at least 247 false claims for income tax returns in tax years 2008 through 2011, officials stated.
Although the IRS stopped some of the refunds, approximately 138 fraudulent refunds totaling approximately $219,984 were issued, according to authorities.
Officials said Ludwig could get many more years tacked on to this prison sentence when he is sentenced in July: On the conspiracy count, he faces a maximum statutory penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
He faces additional a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each false claims count, officials stated.