[mob] Man asks IRS for $1mil refund, IRS says 'Sure!'

[Robbie Honerkamp <robbie@shorty.com>]

If you ever wonder how closely the IRS checks over your tax return, 
here's your answer.

Robbie

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=817&e=11&u=/ap/tax_scheme

Unemployed Man Files for $1.5M Tax Refund
Wed Apr 16, 6:35 AM ET  Add AP - Feature Stories to My Yahoo!

By TOM HAYS, Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK - An unemployed man masquerading as a millionaire filed an 
income tax return claiming he was owed a refund of more than $1.5 
million, authorities said.

Turns out he almost got it, they said.

Benjamin Harris, 47, of Brooklyn, was arrested and arraigned on charges 
of filing a false claim last year with the Internal Revenue Service 
(news - web sites). After pleading innocent, Harris was released on 
$10,000 bond.

Defense attorney Heidi Cesare told a judge her client had made a career 
out of working temporary jobs, had no criminal record and had 
volunteered to meet with IRS investigators on tax deadline day. He soon 
found himself in handcuffs.

"Ironically, they scheduled (the meeting) for today, of all days," she 
said Tuesday.

The IRS denied the timing was calculated.

Prosecutors allege a 2001 return filed by Harris included a doctored W-2 
form showing he made nearly $9 million that year as an attorney for an 
employment agency, Temporary Time Capitol Corp. He claimed he paid 
$3,196,431 in taxes and was owed $1,580,065, court papers said.

Harris allegedly checked a box requesting the refund be directly 
deposited into his checking account at a Manhattan branch of HSBC, which 
was done. When he sought to withdraw money from an automatic teller 
machine, his bank notified him of a hold on an account that normally had 
an average balance of $2,000.

The defendant faxed the bank a copy of the altered W-2 form "to prove 
the deposit was legitimate," court papers said. But the bank still 
refused to release the money.

Instead, the bank alerted the IRS to "the unusually large deposit, which 
led to a federal investigation," the papers said.

An IRS spokesman, Joseph Foy, credited the bank with being "perceptive 
enough to freeze the funds and notify us."

The investigation found that Harris, who could face up to five years in 
prison if convicted, had worked for Temporary Time in 2000, when his 
reported income was $1,061.