Wrestling Promoter Pleads Guilty in Huge Tax Scam

A Paramount TV wrestling promoter pleaded guilty to orchestrating hundreds of false computer tax returns that robbed the government of $1 million, the nation's largest electronic income tax fraud, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

Jerome Hearne, 35, pleaded guilty Monday in U.S. District Court to one count of conspiracy to obtain payment from false claims for federal income tax refunds and to 15 counts of aiding others to file false income tax refunds, said U.S. Atty. Lourdes G. Baird.

Hearne, a former producer of women's wrestling shows on television, led a group of eight people in a scheme in which more than 200 bogus tax refund claims were filed, prosecutors said. All eight have since pleaded guilty to charges in connection with the case.