Federal authorities indicted two Gary residents Friday over allegations of stealing more than $3 million in tax refunds from the Internal Revenue Service.
Donald L. Armour, 65, and Veronica Young, 46, are charged with one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud. Armour is also charged with three counts of filing false claims, and Young with one count.
From about July 2011 to about February 2013, Armour and Young devised a scheme to defraud which involved filing false and fraudulent tax returns in order to obtain fraudulent refunds from the IRS, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney David Capp.
The indictment alleges Armour and Young created several trusts, named themselves as the trustee, and filed fraudulent tax returns for those trusts. The trust tax returns allegedly contained fraudulent representations designed to result in a high refund.
Armour received three refund checks, totaling more than $2.7 million, for three separate trusts for which he filed fraudulent tax returns, federal authorities allege. Young allegedly received one refund check for more than $300,000 for a trust for which she filed a fraudulent tax return.
The IRS recovered approximately $2.2 million of the money issued to Armour and Young in fraudulent refunds, Capp said.
Armour and Young were taken into custody and had their initial appearance Friday before Magistrate Judge Andrew Rodovich.
Jim Masters is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.