LAWFUEL – Law News Network – Ugo Chukwu Nwosu, a resident of Covina, California was sentenced today by United States District Court Judge Florence-Marie Cooper for conspiring to defraud the United States by obtaining false income tax refunds. Nwosu was sentenced by Judge Cooper to 5 months in federal prison to be followed by 5 months of home detention, and ordered to pay $82,483 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service. Nwosu will also be required to pay a special assessment of $100.
On April 24, 2006, Nwosu and co-conspirator Evelina Barajas Carmen pled guilty to conspiring with each other to commit the tax refund scam. Nwosu admitted in his plea agreement that between 1998 and 2001, he entered into and participated in a scheme to prepare and file false tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service on behalf of various individuals, some of whom were unaware of the filing of the returns, including at least one deceased individual. Nwosu also admitted that he agreed to use Carmen’s address as the address where some of the tax refund checks could be delivered. Other refund checks were delivered to Nwosu’s address.
Nwosu admitted in his plea agreement that in preparing the false income tax returns, he would at times create false forms W-2 to use when filing the false returns. These W-2s would at times identify the employer as “West African Trading Company,” an entity owned and controlled by Nwosu.
This case is the result of an investigation by the Los Angeles Field Office of IRS-Criminal Investigation.
