Troy Fears is in prison for life, so perhaps running a lucrative tax scam from jail didn’t seem like much of a risk.

And while most people think of doing taxes as a chore at this time of year, it paid Fears at least $119,000 while he was in prisons in Arizona and Maine. He filed a total of 117 tax returns from 2005 to 2009.

He also claimed $600 federal stimulus checks in the names of other inmates.

Fears, 55, was sentenced in federal court Thursday to 57 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to making false claims to the U.S. Treasury Department and misusing Social Security numbers.

He has been in prison since 1976, for two rapes in which he threatened his victims with a knife. His sentence of 60 years to life was elevated to life without parole after he was convicted of an assault in prison.

In Arizona, he bought the names and Social Security numbers of two dozen prisoners. When he was transferred to Maine in 2007 as part of a prisoner exchange, he began gathering new tax return candidates.

He convinced other prisoners at the Maine State Prison in Warren that he was applying for grants on their behalf, so he could get their names and Social Security numbers.

Over the years, Fears relied on two women he met as pen pals, one of whom he married, to submit 117 fake tax returns using the names and Social Security numbers of other inmates, and fake W-2s.

He told the women, one in Massachusetts, the other in Florida, that he was submitting the returns on behalf of the prisoners. He had them set up bank accounts in his name and transfer money as he directed.

Both women eventually got suspicious. The one in Massachusetts ended the relationship. Neither was charged in the federal case.

The scheme cleared at least $119,000. The key to the operation was direct deposits, which the IRS routes without making sure the name on the account matches the return, according to court papers.

Fears sought $515,000 in refunds. The IRS determined that it released just the $119,000.

Many of the returns weren’t processed because the Social Security numbers belonged to people who were dead or minors, or didn’t match the names on the returns. The IRS seized $26,000 from Fears’ accounts, and he was ordered to pay back the rest.

It’s unclear what Fears was spending the money on while in prison. Some of it was paid to his attorney and other people he knew. He directed the women who were helping him to keep some of it. He referred to his master account as his “nest egg,” though it’s not known when he intended to use it.

Fears escaped detection until corrections officers at the Maine State Prison intercepted some of his mail, which included a suspicious list: names of other prisoners, their Social Security numbers and dollar amounts in the thousands alongside them.

That list was forwarded to federal investigators and, ultimately, agents with the Internal Revenue Service.

On Thursday, Fears, his hands shackled to a chain around his waist, was apologetic. “I made a mistake and it got out of hand and I didn’t mean for it to go as far as it did,” he told U.S. District Court Judge George Singal.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Donald Clark said it may seem odd to tack years onto a life sentence, but there’s no way of knowing what might happen to the rape convictions in the future.

If Fears were somehow scheduled for release, he would still have to serve the federal sentence, Clark said.

Staff Writer David Hench can be contacted at 791-6327 or at:

dhench@pressherald.com

 

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