Date: May 4, 2023 Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov A Las Vegas man was sentenced today to 30 months in prison followed by one year of supervised release for claiming $989,031 in fraudulent income tax refunds from the IRS for himself and shell companies for tax years 2007 through 2011. In December 2022, a federal jury convicted Anthony Uvari of four counts of making and subscribing false tax returns. United States District Judge Andrew P. Gordon presided over the four-day trial. According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, between December 2008 and May 2013, Uvari filed tax returns that falsely claimed businesses — including numerous gaming companies and a bank — had paid him or his companies gambling winnings or other income, but withheld more than $900,000 of income tax on his behalf and paid it to the IRS. As a result, he requested from the IRS over $900,000 in fraudulent income tax refunds. The IRS paid out more than $300,000 in fraudulently requested refunds before detecting Uvari's scheme and denying the remaining refund requests. After one such refund request was denied, Uvari provided the IRS with new false documents — including a fake log supposedly documenting his gambling — in a further effort to deceive the IRS into providing the fraudulently requested tax refund. United States Attorney Jason M. Frierson for the District of Nevada and Special Agent in Charge Albert Childress of the IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) made the announcement. This case was investigated by IRS-CI. Assistant United States Attorneys Eric Schmale and Jessica Oliva prosecuted the case.
