A Suwanee man convicted on charges of trying to claim a $1.7 million tax return was sentenced to four years and three months in prison by a federal jury on Wednesday.
After his prison time, Donus R. Sroufe, 55, will spend three years under “supervised release” and must pay a $75,000 fine.
“This was a case of greed, deceit, manipulation and theft directed at the United States Department of Treasury and the American taxpayer,” said Veronica Hyman-Pillot, Special Agent in Charge IRS Criminal Investigation. “The prison time received by Mr. Sroufe should serve as a strong warning that tough punishment awaits those who embark on a similar criminal path.”
The IRS first warned Sroufe that he could face jail time for his fake claims in April 2009 after he filed a tax return claiming he had received $2.5 million from a U.S. treasury bond and that he had paid more than $2.6 million in federal taxes. The bond didn’t exist and Soufre hadn’t paid any income taxes in 2008, authorities said.
Two IRS members met with Sroufe in June 2009 and warned him a second time that his bond seemed fake.
But Sroufe mailed in the fraudulent 2008 tax return to the US Treasury in August 2009 anyway, asking for a $1.7 million tax refund.
A federal jury found Sroufe guilty of interfering with the administration of the revenue laws and making a false claim for a tax refund on May 13.
Sroufe could have served up to five years in jail for the filing a false claim charge, the more serious of the two charges.
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