RIVERSIDE, Calif., Aug. 5 (UPI) -- A federal judge has sentenced a California man in a tax scheme that included the staged shooting of his own son, prosecutors said Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge Stephen Larson in Riverside, Calif., sentenced Paul Hansen, 57, of Apple Valley, Calif., to seven years in prison Monday for filing fraudulent tax returns seeking significant refunds using the Social Security numbers of homeless people and fugitives of wanted posters.
The U.S. Attorney's office in Los Angeles said in a statement that Hansen defrauded the government out of nearly $1 million in tax refunds using identities obtained from vagrants and also from wanted posters of suspected criminals.
As part of the scam, Hansen and his son, Adam, came up with a unique plan to throw the Internal Revenue Service off the trail. Adam Hansen was shot by his father who tried to convince investigators that they had been forced to take part in the scheme under the threat of death from the real mastermind.
Adam Hansen, 38, was sentenced to a year in prison at Monday's hearing.
