On July 14, 2022, in the Middle District of Georgia, Marquet Antain Burgess Mattox was sentenced for defrauding the United States after he submitted false tax return information that directly resulted in him receiving fraudulent tax refunds. Mattox was previously found guilty on nine counts of wire fraud, 10 counts of false claims against the U.S. Government, and one count of theft of Government funds.

According to the court documents, Mattox filed fraudulent Forms 1041, U.S. Income Tax Returns for Estates and Trusts, with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for tax years 2015 through 2017, for at least twelve different trusts. The IRS relied upon information from the submitted Forms 1041 in determining and issuing refunds. Mattox knew at the time when he submitted the tax forms that none of the trusts had any business activities, that the trusts had not earned the income as claimed, and that the withholding payments had not been made to the IRS as claimed. Mattox falsely claimed tax refunds for these purported trusts in the amount of approximately $165,212,271. The IRS issued approximately $2,897,192.74 in Federal income tax refunds from one of the alleged fraudulent trusts, which Mattox was not entitled to receive.

Mattox was sentenced to 230 months imprisonment, three years of supervised release, and was ordered to pay $3,242,388.85 in restitution.

Source:  The facts in this case narrative come from the following publicly available document: M.D. Ga., Judg., filed July 14, 2022; M.D. Ga., Verdict, filed August 18, 2021; M.D. Ga., Indict., filed September 17, 2020; and DOJ Press Release, published August 19, 2021.