United States Attorney
Northern District of Ohio

Gregory A. White
United States Attorney

Thomas P. Weldon and
Assistant U.S. Attorney
419-259-6376

Seth D. Uram
Assistant U.S. Attorney
419-259-6376

Gregory A. White, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, today announced the filing of the following charges:

The filing of an Indictment charging Malcolm Harper, age 34, formerly of Toledo, Ohio, current address unknown, with conspiring to defraud the Internal Revenue Service by aiding and assisting in the preparation and filing of 28 federal income tax returns for 25 individuals that falsely claimed a total of $97,998 in refunds. The investigating agency in this case is the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division. The case is being handled by Assistant United States Attorney Thomas Weldon.

The filing of an Indictment charging Marty Murray, age 41, of 801 Monroe Street, Bellevue, Ohio, with eleven counts of wilfully failing to account for and pay over to the Internal Revenue Service $94,308.90 in federal payroll taxes. The Indictment alleges that from January 2001 through April 2005, Murray, as co-owner and office manager of Elite Collision and Frame, Inc., also of Bellevue, Ohio, deducted federal payroll taxes from the wages of the employees of Elite Collision but for 11 calendar quarters during this period willfully failed to remit the payroll taxes to the Internal Revenue Service. The investigating agency in this case is the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division. The case is being handled by Assistant United States Attorney Seth D. Uram.

The Filing of an Indictment charging Jennifer S. Thomas, age 41, 1110 Four Seasons Drive, Toledo, Ohio, and Martin Jamison, age 49, of Toledo, Ohio, with conspiring to defraud the Internal Revenue Service by aiding and assisting in the preparation and filing of 35 federal income tax returns for 26 individuals that falsely claimed a total of $160,415 in refunds. The Indictment alleges that Thomas and Jamison recruited individuals to file federal tax returns, charged these individuals up to $500 for preparing each false return, then prepared and electronically filed the returns using false income amounts, false withholding tax amounts, fictitious dependents, and claiming fraudulent Earned Income Credits, to generate false refunds for each individual. The investigating agency in this case is the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division. The case is being handled by Assistant United States Attorney Seth D. Uram.

The filing of an Information charging Fouad A. Khechen, age 45, of 5940 Sylvan Ridge Dr., Toledo, Ohio, with conspiring to defraud the United States by filing federal income tax returns for 2000, 2001, and 2002 on which he intentionally failed to report $150,505 in personal income and on which he intentionally underreported his income taxes by $42,149. The Information further alleges Khechen worked as a manager at the Monroe Carryout in Toledo, Ohio and received his $1,000 per week salary in cash so Khechen could more easily underreport his income and evade payment of his income taxes.

The Information further charges Khechen with defrauding the Social Security Administration out of approximately $85,000 by concealing his income from Monroe Carryout, which would have disqualified him and family members from receiving Social Security Disability benefits. The Information also charges Khechen with defrauding the federal Medicare program out of approximately $35,000 by fraudulently causing Medicare to pay for his disability health insurance premiums from 2000 to 2006.

The investigating agencies in this case are the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division, the Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General, and the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General. The case is being handled by Assistant United States Attorney Seth D. Uram

If convicted, each defendant’s sentence will be determined by the Court after review of factors unique to this case, including the defendant’s prior criminal record, if any, the defendant’s role in the offense and the characteristics of the violation. In all cases the sentence will not exceed the statutory maximum and in most cases it will be less than the maximum.

An Indictment and an Information are only charges and are not evidence of guilt. The burden of proof is always on the government to prove a defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.