A man from Aurora was sentenced today to 108 months in federal prison for participating in a scheme submitting false tax returns, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Jeffrey Harris, 60 will also be on supervised release for three years following his prison term, and will have to pay $288,728.67 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service, and $63,191.24 to Colorado’s Department of Revenue.
Harris was indicted by a federal grand jury in Denver in two separate indictments on Nov. 4, 2008. He pled guilty on Nov. 30, 2009.
Harris owned and controlled Olympia Financial and Tax Services, Inc., in Aurora. The company obtained refunds for customers by preparing and filing amended individual tax returns with falsified information.
Olympia often charged customers between 40 percent and 50 percent of their tax refunds.
From February through December 2004, Harris also operated under the name, Grand Peak Mortgage and Financial Services Inc.
In the two schemes, Harris filed more than 800 amended returns with the IRS and more than 500 with the Colorado Department of Revenue.
Among the people who worked with Harris and were co-defendents in fraud cases were LouAnn Savala, Manivone Saignaphone, Manikhone Saignaphone, Annalisa Whittaker, and Catherine Senninger.
Savala was sentenced in April to 30 months in prison, and Whittaker was sentenced to five years of probation. They are each also paying thousands in restitution.
The Saignaphone sisters and Senninger have not yet been sentenced.
