Ravenna inmate gets more prison time for tax fraud scheme

CLEVELAND (AP) -- A man serving a life prison term for murder has been sentenced to 22 additional months for a tax fraud scheme in which prosecutors say he used the Social Security numbers of other inmates to prepare bogus tax returns and attempt to collect refunds.
Michael Murdock, 28, formerly of Ravenna, prepared nearly 100 fake returns while being held at the Mansfield Correctional Institution, federal prosecutors said. He mailed the documents to Holly Hatch, 26, who filed the papers with the Internal Revenue Service, using mailing addresses of relatives or post office boxes.
Hatch, of Akron, is scheduled to be sentenced in November in U.S. District Court.
The inmates were not aware their identities were being used, prosecutors said.
The pair tried to claim $104,000 in refunds between 2001 and 2003, prosecutors said. They received six bogus checks totaling $5,277 before the IRS uncovered the scam.
Murdock, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy tax charges, must serve the additional sentence after finishing his term for killing a 25-year-old man in 1996. He has been transferred to the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville and is scheduled for a parole hearing on the murder conviction next month.
U.S. District Judge Solomon Oliver Jr. on Thursday also ordered Murdock to repay the government.