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Crag Francis - also known as Horus Jurjaya Bey - a former Hartford Police officer, was sentenced in Hartford District Court on Friday to 18 months in prison followed by one year of supervised release for filing a false tax return.
In February 2009, Windsor resident Francis e-filed a 2008 federal income tax return that listed falsely inflated amounts of both interest income received and taxable income withheld by the government, and requested a fraudulent refund of $255,904, when in reality, he was only entitled to a $4,073 refund.
The IRS issued the fraudulent refund before determining that it had been faked.
Upon receiving his fraudulent refund, the 45-year-old former police officer spent or converted the funds to more than $220,000 in cashier’s checks. When notified by the IRS of the error on April 7, 2009, Francis possessed $100,000 in checks; however, he proceeded to cash the checks and spend the money over the following three months.
In total, Francis owes the IRS $387,103.07, John Durham, the United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, noted. He was arrested on June 7 last year in Florida and pleaded guilty to one count of filing a false tax return in February this year.
Francis remains released on $250,000 bond. He is scheduled to report to prison on Aug. 6.
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