New Jersey Man Convicted Of Promoting Mortgage Recovery Tax Schemes

Mortgage recovery tax schemes are illegal as Kenneth Crawford Jr. of Atlantic City found out. A federal jury in Camden, New Jersey, convicted Crawford of conspiring to defraud the IRS and filing false claims. The jury also found him guilty of obstructing the internal revenue laws.

Prosecutors stated at trial that Crawford and others promoted and sold a mortgage recovery tax scheme. The scheme obtained fraudulent refunds for their clients fraudulent from the IRS between 2015 and 2016.

Crawford promoted the scheme to people who were facing foreclosure or behind on their mortgage payments. He sold people on the idea that they could wipe out their mortgage debts by filing tax forms with the IRS.

Subsequently, clients filed fraudulent forms with the IRS. Clients stated a substantial amount of taxes had already been withheld. As a result, the IRS issued significant refunds to people who were not entitled to them. Crawford’s scheme cost the government more than $2.5 million in fraudulent refunds from the IRS. Crawford charged his clients a fee of roughly 25% of the refund obtained.

Crawford provided clients with false and fraudulent documents to send to the IRS when the IRS discovered the fraud. He also directed clients to conceal from the IRS his role in filing the false returns. In addition, he advised clients to remove funds from bank accounts in their names in order to thwart IRS collection efforts.

As a result of his conviction, Crawford faces a statutory maximum sentence of five years in prison for the conspiracy charge. He also faces five years in prison for each false claim count. In addition, he faces three years in prison for obstructing the internal revenue laws.  He also faces a period of supervised release, restitution, and monetary penalties.