On September 3, 2013, a group of indictments were filed in federal court involving four people for operating a conspiracy to defraud the United States government through a scheme to file false tax returns resulting refunds for a period that spanned two years from January 1, 2010 to January 1, 2012. The conspiracy involved people currently incarcerated in Arizona prisons.
The defendants, who were not already in custody, Marie Egger, aka Kristi Marie Ramsey, and Michael Wayne Egger were arrested on September 5, 2013 in Mesa, Az. The other two defendants, Joseph Andrew Murray and Samuel George Hamilton, were already in custody in the Maricopa County Jail facility and the Arizona Department of Corrections respectively.
The false federal Form 1040 for U.S. Individual Income Tax Returns were filed for prisoners falsely claiming about $7,000.00 for household help with no supporting W-2 forms and no federal withholding. They also claimed the Making Work Pay Credit of $400 and the American Opportunity Credit for approximately $1,000 as well as additional claims for the Earned Income Tax Credit. The false refunds were based on these credits. The returns were all filed for people in prison; most were incarcerated the entire time period covered by the return filed.
Samuel George Hamilton filed two returns in his name while he was in prison the entire time period covered by the returns filed.
All but one of the returns were filed electronically by Kristi Marie Egger using Free TaxUSA.com, a TaxHawk webste.