Tolland Sex Assault Defendant Now Facing Federal Tax And Fraud Charges

TOLLAND, CT — A Tolland man already in custody on a $1 million bond on multiple sexual assault charges is now accused of federal tax and fraud crimes.

David X. Sullivan, United States attorney for the District of Connecticut; Thomas Demeo, acting special agent in charge of IRS Criminal Investigation in New England; and Jonathan Mellone, special agent in charge of the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General, Office of Investigations, Labor Racketeering and Fraud, Northeast Region, announced Wednesday that a federal grand jury in New Haven has returned an eight-count indictment charging George Davis Telford, 36, of Tolland, with tax and fraud offenses.

According to the indictment, Telford created bogus trust entities in an effort to obtain fraudulent refunds from the IRS for purported tax overpayments to the trusts. In 2019 and 2020, Telford filed five false federal tax returns claiming approximately $6.2 million in refunds purportedly owed by the IRS, according to the indictment.

The IRS paid Telford one refund of $564,758 for a tax return he filed for the 2018 tax year on behalf of the "Telford Asset Family Trust," according to the indictment.

The indictment further charges that, in 2022 and 2023, Telford also engaged in a scheme to defraud the Connecticut Department of Labor of unemployment insurance benefits purportedly to compensate displaced workers of an entity called "High Class Grads LLC," which he purported to own. Telford "submitted and caused to be submitted" fraudulent claims for unemployment insurance benefits, one in his name and two for other third parties, claiming that the individuals had earned wages from High Class Grads and had been laid off from the company, according to the indictment.

"In fact, High Class Grads did not employ these individuals and had not paid them any wages. As a result of these claims, CT DOL paid out $48,792 in fraudulent benefits," Sullivan said.

The indictment charges Telford with five counts of making and subscribing a false tax return, an offense that carries a maximum prison term of three years on each count, and with three counts of wire fraud, an offense that carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years on each count.

Telford is due on court on Aug. 8 in the sex assault case. On July 21, 2023, he was arrested by state police on a warrant and charged with one count of first-degree sexual assault, four counts of both second- and third-degree sexual assault, four counts of illegal sexual contact with someone younger than 16 and four counts of risk of injury to a child, according to an arrest report.

The victim in the case is 14, according to an arrest report.

The warrant was secured after an investigation by the state police Eastern District Major Crime Squad.

Telford is also being held on a $100 bond for criminal impersonation and interfering with police in the case.