In Georgia federal criminal news, Jamil Flowers pled guilty on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia to conspiracy to defraud the government and making false claims and statements to the IRS for defrauding the federal government of more than $1 million in tax refunds, according to the AJC. Flowers, Rico Lampkin and Jason Soudemire, who have also pled guilty, admitted to filing more than 100 tax returns containing false statements of income and withholding. Most of the false returns contained false 1099-R forms showing that the taxpayers had allegedly received money from a pension with the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board. The conspirators used other persons to open bank accounts to receive the tax refunds.
According to a press release by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georiga, John Duffey and Jennifer Duffey of Locust Grove, Georgia, were both sentenced to a year and a day in the Northern District for illegally disposing of hazardous wastes. The Duffeys operated a company Joint Military Development Services (JMDS), which conducted training exercises for the military. JMDS purchased approximately 560 "napalm bursts," containing napthalene, a federally-listed hazardous waste. The Duffeys were charged with burying the napalm bursts on an adjacent landowner’s property in Locust Grove, Georgia, rather than paying to have the bursts lawfully disposed of. JMDS did not have a permit from the Environmental Protection Agency to dispose of the waste.