BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - The man identified as the ringleader of a federal tax fraud scheme that was run from inside an Alabama prison today was sentenced to more than five years in federal prison, federal authorities announced.

Shermaine "Shade" German, 57, was sentenced to five years and six months in prison by U.S. District Court Virginia Hopkins during a hearing in Birmingham today, according to a statement from U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division Special Agent in Charge Veronica Hyman-Pillot, and FBI Special Agent in Charge Richard D. Schwein Jr.

Hopkins also ordered German, along with six of his co-defendants, to repay $788,280 to the IRS.

German had pleaded guilty in December to one count of conspiracy to defraud the government. Other charges against him were dismissed. Six others from four cities across Alabama have pleaded guilty to the tax conspiracy.

German was an inmate at Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer when he orchestrated the tax scheme that included taking identifying information of fellow inmates and using the information to create false income tax returns, according to the statement.

German's attorney, Alison Wallace, declined comment today.

German had been released from prison in December after the state's pardons and parole board decided in November to parole him from a life sentence from 1986 involving drug charges out of Montgomery County. He had been released to a transitional facility in Thomasville in December.

"This defendant took the identities of at least 70 fellow inmates and, from inside his cell, directed a complicated fraud that involved the submission of more than 2000 tax returns, the mailing of more than 500 false tax refund checks and a loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars to the U.S. Treasury," Vance stated.

"Filing fraudulent tax returns in the names of other individuals often results in significant harm to those individuals whose identities were stolen, as well as a monetary loss against the U.S. Treasury," Hyman-Pillot of the IRS Atlanta Field Office said. "As we continue working through tax season, this conviction should send a message that the IRS will aggressively pursue all individuals who attempt to defraud the U.S. tax system."

"The sentence imposed today speaks to the outstanding efforts of the FBI, IRS, and the United States Attorney's Office who uncovered, investigated, and prosecuted German and all his co-conspirators who participated in these schemes," Schwein said.

Based on the indictment and other court documents, the statement lays out the scheme:

From January 2008 to May 2013, while German was an inmate at Donaldson, he obtained the names, birth dates and Social Security numbers of other people, often fellow inmates, including prisoners on death row and those serving sentences of life without parole. He used their information to create false income tax returns that contained fabricated amounts of tax withholdings.

German also created false power of attorney forms, which he mailed out of the prison along with the false income tax returns. Various other members of the conspiracy notarized the power of attorney forms and used them to cash or deposit income tax refund checks received as part of the scheme.

Other who have pleaded guilty are: Ronald Webster, 56, and Yvette Berry Pinckney, 49, both of Montgomery; Marlo Yvette Miller, 46, and Irene King Douglas, 59, both of Huntsville; Cynthia Dianne Ware, 50, of Eufaula; and Barbara Ann Grimes, 63, of Mobile.

Hopkins also sentenced Ware today, ordering her to serve six months in home detention as a condition of the five years' probation the court imposed. Judge Hopkins also ordered Ware to pay the government $54,605 in restitution.

Miller, Pinckney, Douglas and Webster are scheduled for sentencing April 1 in Huntsville. Grimes is scheduled for sentencing April 8 in Birmingham. A case is still pending against an eighth person, Brenda Joyce McDonald, in the case.

The IRS and FBI investigated the case, which Assistant U.S. Attorney Russell E. Penfield is prosecuting.