April 10, 2017
A Philadelphia man will spend seven years in prison after he conspired to defraud the Internal Revenue Service by filing more than a thousand false federal tax returns, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced Monday.
Ahmed Kamara, 41, originally of Collingdale, pleaded guilty last summer to preparing and filing false federal income tax returns, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
Prosecutors said Kamara and five co-conspirators filed returns to enrich themselves and others. Between 2008 and 2013, Kamara prepared 1,217 tax returns by obtaining the names, dates of birth and social security numbers of children in foster care. He would use this information to claim the foster children were dependents on fraudulent federal income tax returns both for himself and his clients.
The scheme resulted in a tax loss to the IRS of approximately $7,972,093.
The case was investigated by the Criminal Investigation Division of the IRS, Philadelphia's Office of the Inspector General and the Social Security Administration's OIG-Office of Investigations.
