A man formerly of Neptune, New Jersey, was sentenced today in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey to serve 54 months in prison to be followed by five years of supervised release, the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced.

In February 2014, a jury convicted David Moleski, a pilot and former chiropractor, of 14 counts of mail fraud, one count of wire fraud, one count of corruptly endeavoring to obstruct and impede Internal Revenue laws and three counts of submitting false claims for tax refunds.  Moleski was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Freda L. Wolfson, who also ordered that Moleski pay a $10,000 fine and, as a condition of release, $48,199 in restitution.

According to the evidence presented in court, Moleski submitted three false tax returns in 2009 for tax years 2006 through 2008 that collectively requested more than $1.3 million in income tax refunds to which he was not entitled.  Prior to filing these returns, Moleski failed to file tax returns from 1999 through 2005, even though he was legally required to file.  When the IRS assessed taxes for those years and began collecting, Moleski obstructed the collection efforts and demanded that a third-party financial institution not comply with an IRS levy.  In addition, Moleski attempted to pay credit card bills and other debts with fake financial instruments that claimed to draw on an account at the U.S. Treasury that did not actually exist.  For instance, Moleski sent a fake financial instrument for $500,000 in alleged payment of a mortgage debt.

The case was investigated by special agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation.  Trial Attorneys Tino M. Lisella and Yael T. Epstein of the Tax Division prosecuted the case, with the assistance of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey.