False Refund Claim Earns Convict More Prison Time
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SANTA ANA — A former Anaheim Hills contractor who managed to get $82,705 from a bogus income tax refund while serving five years on a securities fraud charge will be spending 33 months more in a federal prison.
Gerald W. McComber, 41, was sentenced late Friday to the additional time by U.S. District Judge Alicemarie H. Stotler in Santa Ana. He had pleaded guilty in April to filing a false refund claim.
From his federal prison cell in Lompoc, McComber used phony documents and other people’s names to file eight fraudulent tax returns from 1993 to 1995. Though he claimed refunds totaling nearly $345,000, the Internal Revenue Service caught on after paying the initial $82,705.
McComber’s term for securities fraud ended in April, and he was turned over to the California prison system to serve the remaining portion of a concurrent state sentence for filing false income tax returns.
The state term ended in June, and he was returned to the federal system to await sentencing on his latest conviction.
Though McComber admitted to filing multiple false returns, federal prosecutors charged him with just a single count because the sentencing guidelines are the same.
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