Man in Marietta Caught for Filing False Income Tax Refunds

A man named Arnold Tobias Gervais, 34, had pleaded guilty this past Wednesday for an attempted scheme to defraud the IRS for over $3.4 million in federal income tax refunds.

The United States Attorney’s Office and the IRS are always on an aggressive search to sift out those that are cheating on taxes, as they take away from those who have to pay their fair share of taxes, as they did with Gervais.

As stated by United States Attorney Yates, Gervais was convicted for his crime in May 2008 and was given 5 years in prison by the Superior Court of Cobby Country. He was caught for submitting a fraudulent tax return, attempting to get a tax refund of over $600,000. For that charge, Gervais was incarcerated until February 26, 2010.

During his custody, Gervais worked through his wife at the time being to file a phony income tax return with the IRS for 2008, containing a claim for a payment of income tax refund of $811,073. Gervais fully knew that these claims were completely fraudulent. In addition to these false claims, he has been caught for six more false claims, dating back all the way to 2004.

All of his false tax returns claimed that there were a significant amount of wages earned from a fictitious business called “Safety Shoes and More, Inc.” that was recorded to be located in Rome, Georgia. Altogether, the total potential tax loss for the IRS was tallied up to $3,488,135.