Date: March 20, 2025
Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov
Paducah, KY — A Crofton, Kentucky, man was sentenced last week to 2 years and 3 months in prison for fraud and tax offenses.
U.S. Attorney Michael A. Bennett of the Western District of Kentucky and Karen Wingerd, Special Agent in Charge, Cincinnati Field Office, IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) made the announcement.
According to court documents, Marvin Upton was sentenced to 2 years and 3 months in prison, followed by 3 years of supervised release, for 3 counts of bank fraud and 3 counts of filing false tax returns. Until recently, Upton was the pastor at Crofton Pentecostal Church in Crofton, Kentucky. The bank fraud charges arose from Upton’s scheme during the years 2013 to 2016 to defraud one of his elderly parishioners who suffered from dementia. During that same time period Upton also submitted multiple false tax returns which omitted income from the fraud scheme.
There is no parole in the federal system.
Upton was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $500,000 to the victim’s estate and $222,037 in restitution to the IRS.
The case was investigated by the IRS-CI.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Madison T. Sewell and Corinne E. Keel prosecuted the case.
This case was investigated and prosecuted as part of the National Elder Justice Task Force and the Kentucky Elder Justice Task Force. The Department of Justice’s mission of its Elder Justice Initiative is to support and coordinate the Department’s enforcement and programmatic efforts to combat elder abuse, neglect and financial fraud and scams that target our nation’s older adults. In response to the growing need and targeting areas of greatest concern, the Department of Justice stood up 10 task forces made up of 11 federal districts to combat a variety of elder abuse, including elder financial exploitation. Kentucky’s federal districts make up two of the 11 districts under the Initiative. Kentucky’s task force is comprised of investigators, prosecutors, and others at the local, state, and federal level with a common objective of protecting seniors across Kentucky.
IRS-CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a 90% federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 14 attaché posts abroad.