Tom Larson, acting United States attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Topeka, Kan., man pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to a conspiracy that attempted to obtain nearly $445,000 in fraudulent federal income tax refunds.
Orville Frame, Jr., 24, of Topeka, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Gary A. Fenner to participating in a conspiracy to defraud the government.
By pleading guilty today, Frame admitted that he participated in a conspiracy, from March 2013 to April 2014, to obtain federal income tax refunds by filing false and fraudulent claims to the IRS.
The tax refund scheme involved the creation of false W-2 forms, which reported fictitious employer information, fictitious income and fictitious income tax withholdings. Frame and co-defendant Byron Meeks, 37, of Topeka, used the false W-2 forms to fraudulently file for federal and state income tax returns, including Frame’s own federal and state income tax returns for tax years 2012 and 2013 (claiming refunds of a $371,947 and $34,440, respectively).
The tax refund scheme resulted in an attempted criminal federal tax loss of approximately $444,930. The actual loss from the tax refund scheme was $10,945, which was the only federal refund paid out by the IRS. The state of Kansas also paid out a $3,389 state tax refund.
Meeks pleaded guilty to his role in the conspiracy and was sentenced on April 12, 2017, to five years in federal prison without parole. According to court documents, Meeks threatened his girlfriend and her daughter (in whose names fraudulent returns were filed) and instructed them not to cooperate with the investigation. Meeks also instructed Frame to destroy the computer that Meeks used to create and file the fraudulent tax returns.
Meeks had earlier pleaded guilty in a separate case on Dec. 14, 2010, to filing false tax returns and was sentenced to 24 months’ imprisonment. He was released from prison on April 17, 2012, and less than a year later, resumed the same conduct. He participated in filing two fraudulent tax returns in March 2013.
Under federal statutes, Frame is subject to a sentence of up to 10 years in federal prison without parole. The maximum statutory sentence is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes, as the sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the court based on the advisory sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathleen D. Mahoney. It was investigated by IRS-Criminal Investigation.