CA Man Guilty Of Tax Fraud; Received Over $750K In Unwarranted Refunds: Authorities

A former Monterey County resident pleaded guilty Thursday to tax fraud after he received over $750,000 in unwarranted refunds and then bought almost $360,000 worth of new cars, authorities said.

Richard Jason Mountford is set to be sentenced April 11 and faces up to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiring to file false claims against the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

“Mr. Mountford defrauded the U.S. government and every American taxpayer through this selfish scheme,” Special Agent in Charge Tyler Hatcher of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation said in a news release. “Our CI special agents are the best in the world at following the money to find evidence for conviction, a lesson Mr. Mountford learned the hard way.”

Mountford and another person conspired from 2016 to 2020 to submit false individual income tax returns seeking refunds to which they were not entitled, according to the department. Using their own names and the names of two other unwitting people, they falsely reported they were employed by and received wages from a company and that they had federal taxes withheld and needed a refund, authorities said. Most of the returns filed as part of the scheme also falsely reported alimony payments, according to the department.

The IRS issued $873,723 in unwarranted refunds, authorities said. Mountford deposited $757,075 of the proceeds into his bank accounts, bought the cars, and gave his co-conspirator about $170,000 in cash and gold bars, according to the department.