BORDERLAND

Lambertville man gets prison for IRS fraud

9/17/2013

A Lambertville man who fraudulently obtained more than $400,000 from the Internal Revenue Service was sentenced Monday to 30 months in federal prison.

William C. Crawford had pleaded guilty Dec. 19 in U.S. District Court to 13 counts of aiding in the preparation of false tax returns, two counts of false tax returns, and four counts of wire fraud. Judge James Carr also ordered Crawford to pay $443,798 in restitution.

According to court records, Crawford would create fraudulent tax returns for friends and family members and then split the electronic refunds so that the taxpayers would receive the amount they were expecting and Crawford would receive the rest.