Tampa, Florida – U.S. District Judge James S. Moody, Jr. today sentenced Ramon Christopher Blanchett to 34 months in federal prison for theft of government funds. The court also ordered Blanchett to forfeit $980,000, which is traceable to proceeds of the offense.
Blanchett had pleaded guilty on October 1, 2019.
According to court documents, on February 21, 2017, Blanchett electronically filed his 2016 Form 1040, U.S. Individual Income Tax Return, claiming (1) $18,497 in wage income, (2) a state and local income tax deduction of $47,357, and (3) an income tax withholding credit of $1 million. These figures were not accurate. Blanchett attached two Forms W-2 to his return, and one of them contained false and fraudulent information, including an inflated wage amount and inflated amount of tax withheld. Based upon this return, Blanchett falsely claimed that he was due a tax refund of $1 million, and requested that $20,000 of that amount be applied to his 2017 estimated tax.
In April 2017, the IRS mailed a U.S. Treasury check for $980,000 to Blanchett at his residential address in Tampa. Blanchett deposited the check into an account at SunTrust Bank. SunTrust reported the transaction to the IRS, closed Blanchett’s accounts, and held the funds for the IRS.
Ultimately, in 2018, Blanchett received a new official check for $980,000 and deposited it into an account that he opened with Grow Financial Credit Union (GFCU) in Tampa, Florida. Blanchett told GFCU that the funds represented the proceeds of an inheritance he had received from his father’s estate. In fact, Blanchett had not received proceeds from an inheritance. Blanchett used some of the funds to purchase a 2016 Lexus RC350 for $51,617 at a Tampa dealership.
In August 2018, a federal magistrate judge authorized seizure warrants for Blanchett’s Lexus and the money in his GFCU account at the time. Both the vehicle and $919,421.87 were seized.
In April 2018, Blanchett electronically filed another false and fraudulent tax return – this time for tax year 2017 – claiming he was due a refund of $26,477.
In September 2018, Blanchett voluntarily appeared at the IRS office in Tampa, for an appointment that he had made with the Taxpayer Assistance Center. The center alerted IRS-Criminal Investigation agents, who told Blanchett that he was under criminal investigation regarding the $980,000 refund, which he had received. Notwithstanding communications from agents, Blanchett filed a third false and fraudulent income tax return in February 2019 for the 2018 tax year, claiming a refund of $465,734.
With the exception of one Form W-2, Blanchett did not earn wages in the amounts claimed on the Forms W-2 attached to his tax returns. Moreover, he did not make enough wages to have any income tax withheld, and the amounts of tax withheld reported on his tax returns were false. In short, Blanchett knew he was not entitled to a tax refund for tax years 2016, 2017, or 2018.
This case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Rachelle DesVaux Bedke.
