Criminal Actions Drained $4 Million from USA’s Coffers, Served Jackson, Miss. Clients
Judge to Decide Amount Christoper Randell of Sunbelt Tax Services Must Repay for Defrauding IRS
By JOSH MITCHELL
Editor
River Mississippi News
JACKSON, MISS. — Thousands of fraudulent IRS documents prepared by a Mississippi man who worked for a tax preparation company serving clients in the Magnolia State’s capital city of Jackson will spend almost six years in prison, a federal judge ordered Friday.
These criminal actions resulted in a loss of over $3.5 million to the United States government, a Friday DOJ news release states.
Christopher Randell of Sunbelt Tax Services conspired with “others” on a years-long scheme to “inflate tax refunds for clients” through the reporting of intentionally erroneous “education credits, itemized deductions and business profits or losses on their clients’ tax returns,” according to the release.
It adds, “Randell and his co-conspirators prepared thousands of fraudulent returns, causing over $3.5 million in tax loss to the IRS.”
They were convicted in November after jury trials.
U.S. District Court Judge Daniel P. Jordan III for the Southern District of Mississippi also ordered three years of supervised release for Randell once his prison sentence reaches its end.
The court at a later date will decide how much money Randell and the co-conspirators must pay back in the form of restitution to the United States of America for the series of tax crimes.
Randell’s 70-month sentence was announced Friday by Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division.
The tax fraud sentence came after an Internal Revenue Service criminal investigation into the Mississippi tax service.
