Tolland man charged with tax and fraud offenses

Date: July 2, 2025

Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov

David X. Sullivan, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, Thomas Demeo, Acting Special Agent in Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation in New England, and Jonathan Mellone, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General, Office of Investigations, Labor Racketeering and Fraud, Northeast Region, today announced that a federal grand jury in New Haven has returned an eight-count indictment charging George Davis Telford, Jr., of Tolland, with tax and fraud offenses.

As alleged in the indictment, Telford created bogus trust entities in an effort to obtain fraudulent refunds from the IRS for purported tax overpayments to the trusts. In 2019 and 2020, Telford filed five false federal tax returns claiming approximately $6.2 million in refunds purportedly owed by the IRS. The IRS paid Telford one refund of $564,758 for a tax return he filed for the 2018 tax year on behalf of the “Telford Asset Family Trust.”

The indictment further alleges that in 2022 and 2023, Telford also engaged in a scheme to defraud the Connecticut Department of Labor (“CT DOL”) of unemployment insurance benefits purportedly to compensate displaced workers of an entity called “High Class Grads LLC,” which he purported to own. Telford submitted and caused to be submitted fraudulent claims for unemployment insurance benefits, one in his name and two for other third parties, claiming that the individuals had earned wages from High Class Grads and had been laid off from the company. In fact, High Class Grads did not employ these individuals and had not paid them any wages. As a result of these claims, CT DOL paid out $48,792 in fraudulent benefits.

The indictment charges Telford with five counts of making and subscribing a false tax return, an offense that carries a maximum term of imprisonment of three years on each count, and with three counts of wire fraud, an offense that carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years on each count.

U.S. Attorney Sullivan stressed that an indictment is not evidence of guilt. Charges are only allegations, and a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Telford is currently incarcerated in state custody for unrelated alleged criminal conduct.

This matter is being investigated by the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation Division and the U.S. Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Stephanie Levick and Susan Wines.

IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) is the law enforcement arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a 90% federal conviction rate. The agency has 19 field offices located across the U.S. and 14 attaché posts abroad.