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January 4, 2002 New York City Man Sentenced in Tax Refund ConspiracySusan W. Brooks, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, announced that KIPP HOLLEY, age 36, Brooklyn, New York, was sentenced to 12 months and 1 day imprisonment today by U.S. District Judge John Daniel Tinder, following his guilty plea to conspiracy to defraud the United States by filing false claims with the Internal Revenue Service. This case was the result of an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service. HOLLEY previously plead guilty to the charge on October 26, 2001. Between January and April of this year, HOLLEY and numerous other individuals participated in a conspiracy to file false claims for tax refunds in various states throughout the United States. Members of the conspiracy produced fictitious W-2 forms and created counterfeit identification documents (such as driver's license and identification cards), using the names, dates of birth and social security numbers of real people. Other members of the conspiracy, including HOLLEY, then took those counterfeit and fictitious documents to tax return preparation businesses in various cities and filed false income tax returns. At the same time they filed the false tax returns, these individuals also filed for (and subsequently received) refund anticipation loans thru the tax preparation services. HOLLEY and other co-conspirators filed thirty-four (34) false federal income tax returns in the Indianapolis, Indiana area, claiming total refunds of more than $110,000.00. HOLLEY and other co-conspirators also filed forty-eight (48) false federal income tax returns in the Columbus and Cleveland, Ohio areas, claiming total refunds of more than $175,000.00. HOLLEY also admitted as part of his plea agreement to participating in a counterfeit check cashing scheme during the years 1999 through 2001, which involved approximately $280,000.00 in counterfeit checks. According to Assistant United States Susan Heckard Dowd, who prosecuted the case for the government, Judge Tinder also imposed 3 years supervised release following HOLLEY's release from imprisonment. HOLLEY was also ordered to make restitution in the amount of $194,189. The IRS is to received $123,315 of the restitution, Household Finance is to receive $64,002 and Jackson Hewitt is to receive $6,872. |