Date: April 1, 2024 Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov Urbana, IL — A federal jury returned guilty verdicts on 3 offenses on March 28, 2024, against Larry Dean Gibbs of Pembroke Township, Illinois, for Filing False Federal Income Tax Returns. Sentencing for Gibbs has been scheduled for July 17, 2024, at the U.S. Courthouse in Urbana, Illinois. During two days of testimony, the government presented evidence to establish that, in January of 2017, Gibbs filed three federal income tax returns for the tax years 2012, 2013, and 2014, each falsely claiming that he had earned $10 million in annual income from the “Larry Dean Gibbs Estate.” Gibbs further falsely claimed that the IRS withheld over $3 million per year from his earnings each year and that he was entitled to refunds totaling over $6.8 million. In contemporaneous filings, Gibbs claimed that he had changed his name to Mulumbua Humraukn El Taikem Bey and that he was the Ambassador for the Al Moroccan Empire National Republic, which is not officially recognized by the U.S. State Department. At the time Gibbs filed the three false tax returns, he had just been released from federal prison for a prior conviction for filing a false federal tax return in 2005, when he had obtained a $66,282 refund to which he was not entitled. “With the collaborative efforts of our law enforcement partners, the United States Attorney’s Office will continue to protect our society by actively prosecuting individuals who defraud the government and, ultimately, honest taxpayers” said U.S. Attorney Gregory K. Harris. “This verdict is an appropriate outcome to the fraud that Larry Gibbs committed against the U.S. Treasury. Instead of learning from his prior conviction for tax fraud, Gibbs decided to flaunt the Internal Revenue Code, yet again,” said Justin Campbell, Special Agent in Charge, IRS Criminal Investigation, Chicago Field Office. “We look forward to the conclusion of this case at sentencing.” “This conviction demonstrates the FBI’s commitment to working with our federal investigative and prosecutorial partners to hold defendants accountable for their fraud schemes,” said Robert W. “Wes” Wheeler Jr., Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Division of the FBI. “We will continue to take strong action against those who seek to profit illegally from the theft of taxpayer dollars.” Gibbs remains released on conditions of bond, which includes home detention, pending sentencing. At sentencing, Gibbs faces statutory penalties of up to three years of imprisonment and a $100,000 fine on each of the three counts of conviction. The case investigation was conducted by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (CI) and Federal Bureau of Investigation, Chicago Field Office. Supervisory Assistant United States Attorney Eugene L. Miller represented the government at trial. 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. CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.
