Prisoner to be sentenced for tax scheme

LEAVITTSBURG – Ronald Dean Wells will be sentenced July 3 in federal court for his involvement in a tax fraud scheme pulled off while a prisoner at the Trumbull Correctional Institution. Wells, 46, of Columbus, will be sentenced July 3 before U.S. District Court Judge David D. Dowd Jr. in Akron. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to file false and fictitious claims against the Internal Revenue Service.

He is currently serving a 20-year to life sentence for aggravated murder at the Grafton Correctional Institution.

John M. Siegel, an assistant U.S. attorney in Cleveland, said Wells carried out the scheme from November 1996 through October 2002 while an inmate at TCI. During tax years 2002 and 2001, Wells caused 35 fraudulent income tax returns to be filed with the IRS containing combined false and fictitious tax refunds totaling $236,851, Siegel said.

He explained that based on 11 of the false claims, the IRS issued 11 refund checks totaling $56,189, which were cashed by unidentified co-conspirators.   The money was distributed to members of the scheme at the directions of Wells, the prosecutor said.