The Hawaii inmate who admitted to filing fraudulent tax returns to collect hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax refunds for the prison gang USO Family had outside help, according to a criminal complaint filed by federal prosecutors in U.S. District Court last week.
The complaint, filed Thursday, charges Melisa George with conspiracy for allegedly helping Robin Lee file the false tax returns.
Lee, 53, pleaded guilty July 30 to racketeering conspiracy for filing nearly 300 fraudulent tax returns from 2007 to 2012 to collect $353,810 in false refunds for USO Family to use to buy drugs and bribe prison guards at Halawa Correctional Facility. He faces a maximum 20-year prison term at sentencing in December.
Lee is one of 17 Hawaii inmates and a former prison guard named in a September 2013 federal racketeering indictment. He was in prison for drug and drug paraphernalia possession. He also has convictions for forgery and theft.
George spent time in jail for 2005 state convictions for prostitution and drug possession.
The IRS says it started investigating Lee in February 2011 after discovering that large numbers of tax refund checks were being sent to Hawaii state prison facilities.
George became a target of the investigation when the IRS noticed that people participating in the scheme had used her address on submitted tax paperwork.
The IRS says George admitted in an April 2012 interview that at first, Lee mailed to her from Halawa completed tax forms that she in turn mailed to the IRS. Then later, George said Lee mailed her instructions for completing the forms. She then filled out the forms and paid street people $5 to sign them, the IRS said.
George turned over some of the letters to the IRS and a ledger book in which she recorded which tax forms she submitted and refund checks that she and others cashed.
She deposited some checks into her bank account either personally or by electronic transfer.
The IRS says Lee had refund checks sent to bank accounts or an E*Trade account he and others involved in the scheme controlled.
