Date: April 23, 2025
Contact: [email protected]
HOUSTON — A local man has admitted to filing fraudulent and false statements on his federal tax returns causing a quarter of a million in losses, announced U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Ganjei.
Joseph Patrick Butler admitted that between 2013 to 2020, he filed false joint Form 1040 U.S. Individual Income Tax Returns and received inflated tax refunds to which he was not entitled. As part of the plea, Butler acknowledged creating shell companies that issued W-2 forms to himself, falsely reporting hundreds of thousands of dollars in wages and significant tax withholdings each year.
In reality, he earned no such wages, and no taxes had been withheld. Butler’s scheme resulted in a total tax loss of over $260,000 in fraudulent refunds.
U.S. District Judge Sim Lake will impose sentencing July 18. At that time, Butler faces up to three years in federal prison and a possible $250,000 maximum fine.
He was permitted to remain on bond pending that hearing.
IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Brad Gray and Shirin Hakimzadeh are prosecuting the case.
IRS-CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a 90% federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 14 attaché posts abroad.