An Atlanta man was sentenced Wednesday to seven years in federal prison for filing hundreds of fake tax returns that claimed $35 million in fuel tax refunds.
Charlie Shivers III, a 40-year-old former pilot, pleaded guilty last August to two counts of filing false income tax claims.
According to information offered in court, Shivers was involved with filing more than 100 false returns in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 that reported paying fuel taxes for off-road vehicles for various businesses that turned out to be shell companies or the hijacked names of companies.
The IRS paid Shivers and his co-conspirators more than $5.6 million just before they were arrested in May of last year.
U.S. District Judge Thomas Thrash also sentenced Shivers to three years of supervision once he is released from prison and ordered him to pay back the IRS.
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