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	U.S. Department of Justice Office of the United States Attorney Middle District of Tennesse

Craig S. Morford
United States Attorney

Lori Glenn
Assistant U.S. Attorney
(615) 736-5151

FORMER TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY SECURITY OFFICER
SENTENCED IN TAX FRAUD CASE

Nashville, TN – March 8, 2007 – United States Attorney Craig S. Morford announced that ERIC D. ROBINS, a former security officer for Tennessee State University, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Robert L. Echols to serve 12 months, 1 day in prison, and to pay $62,865 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service. ROBINS was charged by information in March 2006 with eleven counts of tax fraud for filing false tax claims against the Government. ROBINS pled guilty on July 24, 2006 to two counts of the information. ROBINS was sentenced on March 5, 2007 to two counts of tax fraud in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 2 and 287.

According to the information, from February 1, 2001 until approximately November 6, 2001, ROBINS filed at least 56 federal tax returns that resulted in fraudulent claims for tax refunds. These refunds included false information, such as false medical and dental expenses, false property taxes, false charitable contributions, false vehicle expenses, and false and fabricated business expenses for clients who had no businesses or business income.

As part of his plea agreement with the Government, ROBINS admitted that he told individuals that he had tax preparation training and that he could get them significantly larger tax refunds than the individuals had received in the past, or if they had paid taxes in the past, the individuals would now receive a tax refund. ROBINS admitted that he assured these individuals that the tax preparation he was completing for them was legal. ROBINS further admitted that, as part of the scheme, he inflated business expenses for certain clients and, in some cases, helped created false businesses in order to fabricate business expenses. ROBINS additionally admitted that the tax returns forming the basis of the eleven counts in the information all contained false and fraudulent information which resulted in undue tax refunds being paid by the Government in excess of $70,000.

This investigation was conducted by the Criminal Investigation Division of the Internal Revenue Service. Assistant U.S. Attorney Lori Glenn and former Assistant U. S. Attorney Bob Washko represented the government.