Tennessee Man Pleads Guilty To Tax Fraud Scene

A Tennessee man has plead guilty for his role in a scheme to claim refunds based on false COVID-19 employment tax credits.

According to federal court documents, Ryan Glidewell conspired with others to file false tax returns seeking refunds based on the Employee Retention Credit and paid Sick and Family Leave Credit. Both of those credits were created by Congress to help struggling businesses during the COVID-19 global pandemic. Glidewell and co- conspirators created phony businesses, with no actual employees or operations. They did that for the sole purpose of falsely claiming the credits. Glidewell filed numerous false tax returns for those businesses and directed the tax refunds to be mailed to addresses he and the co-conspirators controlled. In total, the false returns claimed over $3.4 million in tax refunds, of which the IRS paid $1.8 million.

Glidewell plead guilty Wednesday in federal court in Greeneville to charges of conspiring to commit wire and mail fraud, aiding and assisting in the preparation of a false tax return, and money laundering. He faces a maximum of 33 years in prison on all charges. He will be sentenced on November 12.