Area Man Sentenced on False Tax Refund Conspiracy

Haroon Amin of Upland was sentenced to 30 months in prison earlier this week for taking part in a false tax refund conspiracy, officials say. Ather Ali of Diamond Bar was also charged, and has already been sentenced. 

Ali and Amin were indicted in Riverside in December of 2008, on charges of engaging in a scheme to file false returns with the IRS using the names and Social Security numbers of the deceased that they had obtained from the Internet. According to the indictment, the pair filed at least 250 fraudulent returns in 2002 and 2003, claiming that the deceased individuals earned wages from which income tax was withheld. 

According to officials, many of the claims were rejected by the IRS, but some did go through and were delivered to numerous addresses and mailboxes that had been opened by Ali. A majority of the checks were then deposited in bank accounts in Armenia and Pakistan.

Amin pleaded guilty on January 25, 2010, as did Ali a few weeks later on February 12, 2010. Ali was sentenced on December 17, 2010, and is currently serving a 37 month prison sentence. In addition to his sentence, Amin was ordered to pay $258,594 in restitution to the U.S. Treasury.