Lilburn man charged with filing $165 million in fake tax returns
From staff reports
MACON – U.S. Attorney of the Middle District of Georgia Charlie Peeler said a Lilburn resident currently in custody was charged in a 20-count indictment for allegedly filing false tax returns totaling $165,212,271 and collecting at least $2,897,192.74 in undeserved tax refunds.
Marquet Antwain Burgess Mattox, AKA Marquet Antwain Burgess Mattox El, AKA Marquet Burgess Mattox, AKA Asim Ashunta El, AKA Asim El Bey, 48, of Lilburn was charged by a federal grand jury on Sept. 17 with nine counts of wire fraud, 10 counts of false claims against the U.S. Government and one count of theft of government funds. The indictment was unsealed on Oct. 16. Following a hearing on Friday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles H. Weigle ordered that Mattox remain in custody. An indictment is merely an allegation, and all defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.
According to the indictment, Mattox is accused of filing fraudulent Form 1041 U.S. Income Tax Returns with the IRS for tax years 2015 through 2017 for at least 12 different trusts. The IRS relied upon information from submitted Forms 1041 in determining and issuing refunds.
The indictment alleges that Mattox knew at the time he submitted the tax forms that none of the trusts had any business activities, that the trusts had not earned the income as claimed and that the withholding payments had in fact not been made to the IRS as claimed. Mattox is accused of falsely claiming tax refunds for these purported trusts in the amount of approximately $165,212,271. The IRS issued approximately $2,897,192.74 in federal income tax refunds from one of the alleged fraudulent trusts, which the defendant was not entitled to receive.
IRS-CI’s Atlanta Division and Office of the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration are investigating the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Lyndie M. Freeman of the Middle District of Georgia’s Complex Frauds Unit is prosecuting the case for the government.
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