Tampa and Orlando Men Sentenced for Multimillion-Dollar Tax Refund Fraud Scheme

Two Florida men, Christopher Johnson of Orlando and Jasen Harvey of Tampa, are facing consequences after a court found them guilty of masterminding a tax refund scam that defrauded millions of people. The two were part of a well-known scheme known as the “Note Program,” which promoted faked tax returns that claimed large but entirely fictitious income tax withholdings, according to court filings.

Harvey and others prepared tax returns using the system between 2015 and 2018, claiming large tax withholdings that had never been made. In addition to being charged fees, clients were tricked into giving the scammers a portion of the fictitious returns. The enterprise successfully enticed the IRS out of roughly $1.5 million before the scheme was shut down, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, and claimed over $3 million in bogus refunds.

The penalties were handed down yesterday by U.S. District Judge Roy B. Dalton Jr., who is in charge of the Middle District of Florida. Johnson was given a somewhat lighter sentence of 37 months in prison, while Harvey was given a 48-month sentence. Both will serve three years of supervised release after their incarceration. Following years of supporting a tax fraud scheme, Johnson and Harvey are now required to reimburse the United States hundreds of thousands of dollars; the former has a restitution bill of $864,117.42, while the latter has a charge of $785,858.42.

Arthur Grimes, the third co-defendant in the case, is awaiting sentencing, which is scheduled for January 13, 2025. Although U.S. Attorney Roger B. Handberg for the Middle District of Florida and Stuart M. Goldberg, the acting deputy assistant attorney general for the Justice Department, made the announcement, the case was a cherry on top for the IRS’s Criminal Investigation unit, which carried out the majority of the investigation. Notably, the case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane Hu for the Middle District of Florida, trial attorneys Melissa Siskind, Jeffrey McLellan, and Caroline Pearson of the Tax Division.

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