]A Los Angeles man who sought more than $65 million from the Internal Revenue Service by falsely claiming that his nonexistent farming business was entitled to COVID-19-related tax refunds was sentenced on Thursday, May 22, to four years, nine months in federal prison.

Kevin J. Gregory was ordered to pay $2.76 million in restitution, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Gregory, 57, pleaded guilty in L.A. federal court in January to one count of making false claims to the IRS.

According to his plea agreement, Gregory made the fraudulent requests to the IRS for the payment of nearly $65.4 million in tax refunds for a purported Beverly Hills-based farming-and-transportation company named Elijah USA Farm Holdings.

The IRS issued a portion of the refunds Gregory claimed, and the defendant used that $2.7 million-plus for personal expenses, he admitted.

In January 2022, for example, Gregory made a false claim to the IRS for the payment of a tax refund in the amount of $23.87 million, which he submitted as part of Elijah Farm’s quarterly federal tax return. Gregory claimed Elijah Farm employed 33 people, paid nearly $1.6 million in quarterly wages, had deposited nearly $18 million in federal taxes and was entitled to nearly $6.5 million in COVID-relief tax credits, federal prosecutors said.

In fact, Elijah Farm employed nobody, paid wages to no one and had not made federal tax deposits to the IRS in the amounts stated on his tax return, prosecutors said.