Felon defrauded IRS of $6.37 million, spent $843,000 on cars in a week

A 40-year-old St. Petersburg convicted drug dealer has been sentenced to six years in federal prison for filing false tax returns seeking refunds totaling more than $170 million while on supervised release for his previous conviction.

In addition to his time in prison, Matthew Walker Meredith must forfeit real estate, six Mercedes Benz automobiles and $6.3 million, according to a statement. 

Meredith pleaded guilty March 24 for theft of government money and money laundering.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Meredith was let out of prison in October 2017 after serving about one year of a three-year sentence for conspiracy and possession with an intent to distribute Ehtylone, the drug commonly known as Molly. He had a kilogram of the drug, which he’d imported from China, in his possession.

After being freed from prison, he was placed on three years of supervised release.

Supervised release is meant to be a tool for probation officers and the court “to keep informed and bring about improvements in a defendant’s conduct and condition, according to the website for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

“Probation officers recommend and implement conditions and monitor defendants’ compliance with those conditions,” according to the site’s description of the probation and supervised release. “They also work with defendants to facilitate their reintegration into the community as law-abiding and productive members of society.”

Meredith went in a different direction.

The Justice Department says that while under supervised release, he filed five claims for tax refunds with the Internal Revenue Service in a six-month period in the name of “entities under his control.”

“Each claim was false and fraudulent, in that Meredith falsified both his income and his withholdings,” the department says in a statement.

At least one of his attempts worked.

Meredith was issued a refund check by the IRS for $6.37 million on Nov. 23, 2019.

The check was “quickly” deposited into his bank account and in a matter of weeks a big chunk of the money was spent — the Justice Department says it was “laundered.”

Whatever term one uses, Meredith, according to authorities, used the money to buy six Mercedes Benz vehicles in a single week spending a total of $843,269.32.

He spent another $2.65 million on a 6,500-square-foot waterfront home in St. Petersburg on Dec. 5, 2019.

The case was investigated by the IRS’s criminal investigations division and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Carlton C. Gammons.