A federal grand jury in Camden, NJ issued an indictment to Kenneth Crawford, Jr, charging him with conspiring to defraud the United States Government by promoting a tax refund scheme, filing false claims and obstructing the internal revenue laws.
Crawford and unnamed co-conspirators were charged with executing a “mortgage recovery” tax fraud scheme; assisting client taxpayers to file false tax forms by falsely claiming that substantial amounts had been withheld and paid to the IRS. Crawford recruited and convinced clients, who were behind on their mortgage payments, many facing foreclosure, that they could recover through their tax refunds, the mortgage debt they owed and paid to financial institutions. Crawford would charge a fee for his services of 25% of the refund issued.
According to the indictment, when the IRS discovered the fraud and attempted to recover the refunds issued, Crawford supplied his clients with false documents to send to the IRS.
The amount of fraudulent refund claims was $2.3 million, of which the IRS paid over $1.3 million.
