Atlanta Man Convicted in Fake Prison Charity Scheme

ATLANTA, GA -- Qadir Shabazz was convicted by a federal jury on Wednesday of running a fake prison charity that stole thousands of prisoners’ identities under the pretense of providing religious and financial assistance.

Shabazz used the prisoners’ identities to apply for millions of dollars in fraudulent federal income tax refund dollars.

“Qadir Shabazz preyed upon the desperate hopes of indigent state prisoners from around the country,” said U. S. Attorney John Horn. “He then claimed millions of dollars in taxpayer funds by filing thousands of false federal income tax returns in the names of those prisoners. Shabazz’s actions show a callous disregard for the needs of the indigent prisoners he promised to help, all while he treated the tax dollars of our hard working citizens like money in his personal piggy bank.”

According to prosecutors, Shabazz started a fraudulent prison charity called Indigent Inmate in 2009, whose mission was to provide religious literature and financial assistance to prisoners serving time in state prisons around the country. Indigent Inmate mailed out thousands of applications for assistance to prisons around the country, and received thousands of completed applications back through the mail, including prisoners’ names, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers.

Several inmates testified at trial that they had sent their information to Indigent Inmate because they hoped they would get some type of assistance while they were incarcerated. One prisoner hoped Indigent Inmate would send him stamps so he could write letters to his parents while another hoped he would receive religious materials.

Once Shabazz was in possession of prisoners’ information, he and his co-conspirators filed thousands of fraudulent income tax returns in their names between 2010 and 2012. In total, the tax returns requested over $12 million in fraudulent tax refunds.

Shabazz was found guilty on 33 counts of conspiracy to defraud the IRS, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and theft of government funds.

He will be sentenced in April.