Brooklyn Park man who filed false tax returns must repay IRS and go to prison

A 44-year-old Brooklyn Park man was sentenced Friday to nearly three years in prison after he admitted to filing hundreds of thousands of dollars in false federal tax returns.

Star Tribune

Last update: October 9, 2009 - 11:56 PM

A 44-year-old Brooklyn Park man was sentenced Friday to nearly three years in prison after he admitted to filing hundreds of thousands of dollars in false federal tax returns.

Along with serving 21 months in federal prison, Ellis A. Banks must serve three years of supervised release after his incarceration ends, and he was ordered to make restitution to the IRS for the $375,000 in bogus returns. Banks pleaded guilty four months ago.

"The Internal Revenue Service is determined to stop these false tax refund schemes," said Julio La Rosa, acting special agent in charge of the IRS-Criminal Investigation Division's St. Paul office. "The message this case sends is that participation in refund fraud schemes does not pay and those who do will be prosecuted and serve time in prison for their actions."

Banks prepared dozens of fraudulent returns this decade on behalf of others.

PAUL WALSH

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