3 Florida Men Indicted In Scheme To File False Income Tax Reports

TAMPA, FL — A federal grand jury in Orlando returned an unsealed indictment Thursday charging three Florida men with crimes related to their respective roles in a tax refund fraud scheme.

According to the indictment, from 2015 to 2018, Christopher Johnson of Orlando and Jasen Harvey of Tampa are accused of conspiring to promote a scheme in which Harvey and others prepared returns for clients falsely reporting large amounts of income tax withholdings to the IRS, resulting in tax refunds to which the clients were not entitled.

Johnson and Harvey charged each client a fee per return and Johnson did not report his portion of those fees on his personal tax returns, said the IRS.

The indictment also said a federal judge issued an order prohibiting Harvey from preparing tax returns for others in January 2020 but, despite the court’s injunction, Harvey continued to prepare and file returns from 2020 to 2021, said the IRS.

In addition, the indictment said Arthur Grimes of Orlando and Ocoee participated in the scheme resulting in the filing of four false income tax returns prepared by Harvey. When the IRS attempted to recover a refund issued to Grimes based on a false income tax return, the IRS said Grimes made false statements to an IRS revenue officer, submitted false documents to the IRS, transferred funds to a nominee bank account and obstructed IRS collection efforts.

Johnson, Harvey and Grimes are each charged with aiding in the preparation of false tax returns, which carries a maximum statutory penalty of three years in prison. Johnson and Harvey are also charged with conspiring to defraud the United States, which carries a maximum statutory penalty of five years in prison. Johnson is charged with filing false personal tax returns, which carries a maximum statutory penalty of three years in prison. Harvey is charged with criminal contempt, which carries a maximum statutory penalty of life in prison. And Grimes is charged with trying to obstruct the due administration of the internal revenue laws, which carries a maximum statutory penalty of three years.