Georgia man guilty in Beavercreek IRS check fraud, not guilty of retaliatory liens

Christopher Dowtin, 49, of Jonesboro, Georgia, was found guilty in the U.S. Court for the Southern District of Ohio of wire fraud and theft of public funds, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio.

In a second case, Dowtin was found not guilty of filing false retaliatory liens against a federal official, while a co-defendant named Bondary McCall, 64, of Lithia Springs, Georgia, was found guilty.

Dowtin could face up to 20 years in prison for wire fraud, and up to 10 years in prison for theft of public funds. McCall could face up to 10 years in prison for filing retaliatory liens, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

The wire fraud

The charges stem from a scheme where in December 2024, Dowtin submitted fraudulent forms to the IRS to make himself the responsible party for two companies, which led to him receiving two tax refund checks for $32,495,888.58 and $26,156.50.

He took those checks in February 2025 to a Morgan Stanley office in Beavercreek, and asked to open a brokerage account in a trust in his name, telling a financial advisor that the companies owed him the money for illegally using his “personhood,” according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

He said that the payments owed were transferred to him from the IRS.

The advisor confirmed that the checks were genuine, and on Feb. 19 an executive director from Morgan Stanley contacted the U.S. Secret Service and IRS Criminal Investigation about the suspicious checks and Dowtin’s paperwork. The checks themselves were seized by law enforcement.

The fraudulent liens

Dowtin was later charged with McCall for allegedly filing lien records in Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation against District Court Judge Thomas M. Rose, who was the original judge in Dowtin’s fraud case.

The lien claimed the judge owed Dowtin $32,495,888.58, the same amount as the larger IRS check seized by law enforcement.

According to the U.S. attorney’s office, McCall was the one who filed the lien, two months after Dowtin was arrested for the fraud case.