A Conway man has been sentenced to two years and three months in jail in filing false tax returns and obstructing IRS laws, U.S. Attorney Christopher Thyer said in a statement released Friday.
U.S. District Judge Leon Holmes said Richard Mathews, 61, will have no supervised release and will have to pay $56,904.29 back to the IRS, according to the news release. Mathews will have to turn himself in by Jan. 6 to the Bureau of Prisons.
A jury convicted Mathews on July 30 in five counts of filing false income tax returns and one count of obstructing IRS laws, the release states. A July 2012 indictment states that Mathews ran an online multi-level marketing business known as MMS and Wealth Team International. He and its members profited each time a person signed up and paid a $99 joining fee.
Authorities said Mathews's federal tax returns showed that he had $22,201 in gross receipts from 2004 to 2008 when his bank records showed that he had $245,300.42 in business deposits. Mathews also lied about IRS agents' actions.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Pat Harris and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jamie Dempsey served as prosecutors for the case, which was investigated by IRS agents, the release states.