A Brooklyn, New York, resident pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to defraud the government and theft of public funds, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division.

According to court documents, Akim Martin, also known as Akim Davis, 41, conspired with others to file fraudulent tax returns for companies and individual taxpayers. As part of the scheme, from March 2009 through March 2013, Martin and his coconspirators filed false tax returns in the names of businesses they purportedly owned and operated, claiming phony deductions for wages paid to employees that did not exist. Martin and his conspirators, in turn, then filed fraudulent tax returns in the names of the employees claiming bogus tax refunds.

Martin and his conspirators obtained the personal identifying information (PII) to use on the employees’ false tax returns by stealing it and by recruiting individuals to provide their information in exchange for a cut of the proceeds. Martin cashed and deposited fraudulently obtained refund checks into bank accounts that he controlled and spent the money on his personal expenses. Martin’s conduct resulted in a loss exceeding $550,000.

Sentencing is scheduled for August 24, 2018, before U.S. District Court Judge Carol Bagley Amon. Martin faces a statutory maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. He also faces a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman thanked special agents of IRS Criminal Investigation, who conducted the investigation, and Tax Division Trial Attorneys Jason M. Scheff and Ann M. Cherry, who are prosecuting these cases.