A Lilburn man has been indicted on 20 federal charges alleging he filed false tax returns totaling more than $165 million.
Federal prosecutors allege that Marquet Antwain Burgess Mattox, 48, collected nearly $2.9 million in “undeserved” tax refunds between 2016 and 2018. He was indicted Sept. 17, and the indictment was unsealed by the U.S. Department of Justice on Oct. 16. The Justice Department issued a press release about the charges Oct. 26.
Mattox filed fraudulent tax returns for at least 12 different trusts over a two-year period, the Justice Department said. Mattox claimed he had earned interests on the trusts and that that interest had already been subject to federal income tax, entitling him to the refund, according to the indictment, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia in Macon.
Mattox claimed the 12 trusts individually netted him income between $155,000 and $23.4 million in filings submitted to the IRS between Sept. 2016 and Aug. 2018. A $2.9 million tax refund was issued to one of the trusts, Burgess Mattox Bey Investment Trust, and Mattox took it for his personal use, the indictment says.
Mattox has been charged with nine counts of wire fraud, 10 counts of false claims against the U.S. government and one count of theft of government funds.
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