United States Attorney
Northern District of Texas

1100 Commerce St., 3rd Fl.
Dallas, Texas 75242-1699

Telephone (214) 659-8600
Fax (214) 767-0978

United States Attorney Jane J. Boyle announced today that Billy Ray Newton was sentenced today by the Honorable United States District Judge Terry R. Means to 30 months imprisonment following his April 2002 guilty plea to one count of making false claims against the United States. Newton was also ordered to pay $7,525 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service. A federal grand jury returned a four-count indictment against Newton in January 2002 charging him with knowingly and willfully conspiring to defraud the United States by filing false claims, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 287.

According to the Factual Resume filed, Billy Ray Newton admitted that he fraudulently prepared W-2 forms that reflected income for individuals from sources by whom they were not employed and withholdings that were not taken. Newton then used the fraudulent W-2 forms to prepare and file false returns to claim a refund for the individual. In return for doing this, Newton received payment from the individual for whom he prepared the return.

In one instance, in March 1997, Newton falsely prepared a W-2 reflecting that an individual had been employed by Wendy's during the 1996 tax year and had received $10,567 in income, when he had not. Newton prepared this individual's 1996 tax return and listed the fraudulent income and withholding from Windy's and requested an income tax refund of $4,787. For his part in this offense, Newton was paid $1500 by the individual.

The case was investigated by Special Agents of the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), Dallas Field Office and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney John Bradford.

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