PANORAMA CITY : Man Gets 3 Years for Falsifying Taxes

A 36-year-old Panorama City man who posed as a former Internal Revenue Service employee was sentenced Monday to three years in prison for falsifying federal income tax returns that resulted in more than $100,000 in refunds for a dozen clients.

Danny Charles Gray, who pleaded guilty to four counts of filing phony income tax returns, also will be fined $6,000 and a special $200 assessment for preparing the false tax claims, said Terree A. Bowers, U. S. attorney for the Central District of California.

He had been charged with 12 counts in an indictment filed in U. S. District Court last April. Prosecutors said the other eight counts were dismissed in exchange for Gray’s guilty plea on four.

In addition to the prison term, Gray will be supervised for three years upon his release and prohibited from preparing income tax returns during his parole period, Bowers said.

The charges stem from Gray’s work in preparing false 1991 federal income tax returns for 12 members of a Simi Valley softball team. In exchange for his services, Gray received 10% of the refund amounts.

Gray was introduced to the team by one member who had heard of his ability to maximize income tax returns. None of his clients were charged in the scam and were described in court as victims.

In the four cases in which Gray pleaded guilty, he will pay 25% of the total amount refunded under the phony returns, said Joy Krystofiak, the assistant U. S. attorney who tried the case.

Gray pleaded guilty to filing false claims in November, 1987, to state authorities, prosecutors said.

The current case was developed by special agents of the Criminal Investigation Division of the IRS in Oxnard, Bowers said.