KANSAS CITY, KAN. – Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation announced today that a Kansas City, Kansas man was sentenced last week for theft of government funds and aggravated identity theft for preparing and filing false and fraudulent income tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service.
Lamar D. Lynch, 42, Kansas City, Kansas was sentenced to thirty-two months in prison, three years of supervised release and $84,630 in restitution.
Lynch was indicted on March 19, 2014 and pled guilty on November 5, 2014 to one count of theft of government funds and one count of aggravated identity theft.
According to the plea agreement, a taxpayer identified Lamar Lynch as the preparer of her 2009, 2010, and 2011 tax returns.
The taxpayer was a W-2 wage earner and did not have Schedule C self-employment income from a janitorial service as was reported on her tax returns.
The returns reflected Schedule C losses of $10,312 in 2009, $5,087 in 2010, and $6,719 in 2011, which caused the taxpayer to receive approximately $15,000 in refunds over the three year period. The taxpayer contacted the IRS in 2013 and learned that a portion of her tax refunds went into Lynch's bank accounts.
Lynch was never authorized to direct a portion of the refunds to his accounts. The same IP address used to file these returns was used to file numerous other tax returns by Lynch.
In addition, court documents state that on or about January 28, 2011, Lynch fraudulently used without authority a Social Security number belonging to another individual as part of the theft of government violations. Lynch used this social security number to file a fraudulent tax return for the 2010 tax year and as a result unlawfully obtained $1,458 in government funds.
Lynch will surrender to serve his prison sentence at a later date to an institution designated by the Bureau of Prisons.
This case was investigated by IRS Criminal Investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Tristram Hunt handled the case for the United States Attorney’s Office, District of Kansas.
