Pretend millionaire almost gets $1.5 million tax return

NEW YORK (AP) - A man masquerading as a millionaire filed an income tax return claiming he was owed a refund of more than $1.5 million, authorities said.

And he almost got it.

Benjamin Harris, 47, of Brooklyn, was arrested and arraigned on charges of filing a false claim last year with the Internal Revenue Service. After pleading innocent, Harris was released on $10,000 bond.

Defense attorney Heidi Cesare told a judge her client had made a career out of working temporary jobs, had no criminal record and had volunteered to meet with IRS investigators on tax deadline day. He soon found himself in handcuffs.

"Ironically, they scheduled (the meeting) for today, of all days," she said Tuesday.

The IRS denied the timing was calculated.

Prosecutors allege a 2001 return filed by Harris included a doctored W-2 form showing he made nearly $9 million that year as an attorney for an employment agency, Temporary Time Capitol Corp. He claimed he paid $3,196,431 in taxes and was owed $1,580,065, court papers said.

Harris allegedly checked a box requesting the refund be directly deposited into his checking account at a Manhattan branch of HSBC, which was done. When he sought to withdraw money from an automatic teller machine, his bank notified him of a hold on an account that normally had an average balance of $2,000.

An IRS spokesman, Joseph Foy, credited the bank with being "perceptive enough to freeze the funds and notify us."

The investigation found that Harris, who could face up to five years in prison if convicted, had worked for Temporary Time in 2000, when his reported income was $1,061.