Ex-NFL Player Mitchell Charged With Tax Fraud

Published: Thursday, March 22, 2012 at 11:43 p.m.

Last Modified: Thursday, March 22, 2012 at 11:43 p.m.

ORLANDO | Former professional football player and Lakeland native Freddie L. Mitchell II has been indicted on tax fraud charges and was arraigned Thursday.

Mitchell, 33, and two others, Jamie Russ-Walls and Richard Walls, are accused by the Internal Revenue Service of submitting fraudulent tax returns to obtain refunds ranging from $170,000 to nearly $2 million, according to the indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Orlando.

Mitchell played in the NFL for four seasons, from 2001 to 2004, for the Philadelphia Eagles.

Russ-Walls and Walls are accused of recruiting Mitchell to lure professional athletes into the scheme. The indictment states that ?Mitchell used his football sources to recruit a professional athlete listed in the indictment as "A.G." The athlete's full name is not revealed.

The athlete paid the group $100,000 to prepare his taxes in 2008. Russ-Walls and Walls prepared the returns and submitted false information, including falsified W-2 forms and Schedule C forms showing a profit or loss from a business, the indictment said.

They claimed a refund of $1.968 million without the consent of A.G., who thought the tax refund was for about $1.2 million, the indictment says.

The group gave $1,050,000 of the refund to A.G. Another $638,288 went into an account controlled by Jamie Russ-Walls and Mitchell received $280,000, according to the indictment.

The group also prepared five other false returns, with refunds totaling more than $2.2 million, the indictment says.

During an arraignment Thursday in Orlando, all three pleaded not guilty.

Mitchell, a Kathleen High School graduate, played for UCLA before joining the NFL. He was a wide receiver for the Eagles and played in one Super Bowl.

He was known for being outspoken off the field. He went by the nicknames "Fred Ex" and the "People's Champ."

Since retiring from the NFL, he has run into legal and financial hurdles. A business arrangement to buy Brothers Bar-B-Q in Lakeland fell apart in September 2009.

That same year, he was briefly handcuffed by Lakeland police after FedEx delivered a package to his grandmother's home containing marijuana. It was then delivered to Brothers Bar-B-Q.

Mitchell said he had no idea what the package contained and said when he went to sign for it, he found himself surrounded by police.

Police never formally charged Mitchell with anything.

Last week, he was arrested in Orlando on an arrest warrant from South Bend, Ind., alleging nonpayment of child support.

He bailed out of the Orange County Jail on Thursday night, according to jail records.

[ Elvia Malagon can be reached at elvia.malagon@theledger.com or 863-802-7550. Her Twitter is @ledger911. ]

Source: http://www.theledger.com/article/20120322/news/120329712

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