Chicago — Attorney General Kwame Raoul today announced a Cook County judge sentenced a Chicago accountant, found guilty of defrauding the state out of over $250,000.
Oscar Garrett, 62, of Chicago, was sentenced to 13 years in prison by Cook County Circuit Court Judge James Obbish after he was previously found guilty of theft of government property, identity theft, wire and mail fraud, forgery and income tax fraud. Following the conviction, Garrett’s $300,000 bond was revoked, and he remained in custody at the Cook County Jail.
“I am pleased with the sentence, which holds the defendant accountable for betraying the trust of clients and defrauding the state of Illinois,” Raoul said.
The Attorney General’s office alleged that between January 2011 and December 2016, Garrett obtained fraudulent tax refunds on behalf of over a dozen clients by filing false 1099-R and 1099-M forms. The 1099-R forms, which are filed to report income from retirement accounts, were filed on behalf of the clients who did not have such income to report. As a result, Garrett was able to fraudulently obtain tax refunds from the state, while his clients were unaware of the nature of the returns being filed in their names.
Garrett previously spent more than two and half years in federal prison after being convicted of operating a similar scheme defrauding the Internal Revenue Service.
Assistant Attorney General Maribeth Ennis prosecuted the case for Raoul’s Special Prosecution Bureau, and Deputy Bureau Chief Jonas Harger prosecuted the case for Raoul’s Public Integrity Bureau.
