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Local
Man Gets 34 Months; Forfeits $980,000 In Tax Fraud Scam
Last Friday, a federal judge sentenced a Tampa man to nearly 3 years in prison in a tax fraud case. He pleaded guilty on October 1, 2019.
In addition to the 34 month sentence, the Court also ordered 29-year-old Ramon Christopher Blanchett to forfeit $980,000 in cash, which was traceable to the tax fraud case.
According to court docu- ments, on February 21, 2017, Blanchett electronically filed his 2016 tax form claim- ing that he had earned $18,497. He also claimed a state and local income tax de- duction of $47,357, and an income tax withholding credit of $1 million. He at-
tached two W-2 forms to the return naming his places of employment.
In April 2017, the IRS mailed a U.S. Treasury check for $980,000 to Blanchett at his residential address in Tampa. Blanchett de- posited the check into an ac- count at SunTrust Bank. SunTrust reported the trans- action to the IRS, closed Blanchett’s accounts, and held the funds for the IRS.
In 2018, Blanchett re- ceived a new official check for $980,000 and deposited it into an account that he opened with Grow Financial Credit Union (GFCU) in Tampa. He told the bank the funds represented the pro- ceeds of an inheritance he
RAMON CHRISTOPHER BLANCHETT
had received from his father’s estate. In fact, Blanchett had not received proceeds from an inheritance. He used
some of the funds to pur- chase a 2016 Lexus RC350 for $51,617 at a Tampa deal- ership.
In August 2018, a federal magistrate judge authorized seizure warrants for Blanchett’s Lexus and the money in his GFCU account at the time. Both the vehicle and $919,421.87 were seized.
In April 2018, Blanchett electronically filed another false and fraudulent tax re- turn – this time for tax year 2017 – claiming he was due a refund of $26,477.
In September 2018, Blanchett voluntarily ap- peared at the IRS office in Tampa, for an appointment that he had made with the Taxpayer Assistance Center.
The center alerted IRS-Crim- inal Investigation agents, who told Blanchett he was under criminal investigation regarding the $980,000 re- fund, which he had received.
Knowing he was under in- vestigation, Blanchett still filed a third false and fraudu- lent income tax return in February 2019 for the 2018 tax year, claiming a refund of $465,734.
Blanchett did not earn wages in the amounts claimed on the Forms W-2 attached to his tax returns. In fact, he did not make enough wages to have any income tax withheld, and the amounts of tax withheld reported on his tax returns were false, offi- cials said in court documents.
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