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| IRS nails inmates for false claims |
| By The News-Herald |
| Published: 12/08/2003 |
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Two men already serving time in a Michigan prison recently got their stays extended a couple of years. Carl Robert Kopietz III, 29, and John Edward Barnes, 50, were both sentenced late last month to 27 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to filing fraudulent tax claims. While incarcerated from 2001 to 2002 at the Carson City Correctional Facility, the two conspired to prepare and file false tax returns for other inmates within the state Department of Corrections. Their scheme consisted of Kopietz giving information to Barnes so that he could create false W-2 forms and tax returns in the names of several other prisoners. In the end, Barnes prepared 15 fictitious returns, trying to defraud the government of more than $46,000. The two sent information through the mail in coded messages, trying to make it difficult for the prison's mail monitoring system to catch on. Workers there did, however, identify what was going on and contacted the Internal Revenue Service, which investigated and prosecuted the case. This was Barnes' second time of pleading guilty to conspiring to file false IRS claims. He was sentenced to a 30-month incarceration in June 2001. Barnes has been serving two life sentences since 1979 when he was convicted of two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and one count of breaking and entering. Kopietz, who was in prison for home invasion and breaking and entering, was set to be released, but was locked up again for parole violations stemming from this investigation. U.S District Judge Richard Enslen sentenced the two to the 27 months, which will be served at the conclusion of their other prison stays. |
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