Jury convicts man of filing 26 false tax claims

Kenneth Robert Bruce has been convicted on all counts as charged, to include 26 counts of willfully filing a false claim against the U.S. and for obstructing the Internal Revenue Service.

The verdict was returned late Thursday after a five-day trial and approximately 2 hours of deliberation.

During trial, the jury heard that Bruce prepared 26 false income tax returns or amended income tax returns claiming a total of more than $9 million in false income tax refunds. One return was for himself and 25 were for other taxpayers.

Bruce attached false IRS forms 1099-OID (Original Issue Discount) to the tax returns, falsely reporting the taxpayers had received large amounts of income from OID and had all or nearly all of the false amounts of income withheld for federal income taxes. The false amounts of withholdings formed the bases for the claims for false claims for tax refunds.

You can find the full report at the Sugar Land Sun, a Houston Community Newspaper.