A former\u00a0Portland, Oregon, resident was sentenced to serve two years in prison for his involvement in a fraudulent income tax refund scheme, federal officials announced Tuesday.<\/span><\/p>\n Brandon Leath<\/strong>, 36, pleaded guilty on July 23 to one count of conspiracy to file false claims and one count of theft of government funds.<\/span><\/p>\n U.S. District Judge for the District of Oregon Robert E. Jones also ordered Leath to pay $55,635 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service.<\/span><\/p>\n According to court documents, Leath conspired with others, including his wife, Shawntina Ware,<\/strong> to file more than 227 false income tax returns fraudulently claiming more than $1 million in refunds.<\/span><\/p>\n The false information on the tax returns included fictitious W-2 wages and inflated withholding amounts.\u00a0 The co-conspirators often shared the fraudulent refunds with each other by splitting the refund into multiple bank accounts controlled by the co-conspirators or their family and friends, court records indicate.<\/span><\/p>\n Three of Leath\u2019s co-conspirators have pleaded guilty to various charges and are scheduled to be sentenced.<\/span><\/p>\n On June 5, co-conspirator Jasmine Mason<\/strong> pleaded guilty and is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 18.\u00a0 Ware pleaded guilty on July 23 and is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 6.<\/span><\/p>\n Co-Conspirator Tataneisha White<\/strong> pleaded guilty on Oct. 1 and is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 7.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" OREGON A former\u00a0Portland, Oregon, resident was sentenced to serve two years in prison for his involvement in a fraudulent income tax refund scheme, federal officials announced Tuesday. Brandon Leath, 36, pleaded guilty…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1379,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,3],"tags":[1725,1873],"class_list":["post-17053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home-main-slider","category-u-s-department-of-justice","tag-irs","tag-tax-fraud-scheme"],"yoast_head":"\n