Railroad retiree from Md. gets 18 months for tax evasion

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — An ex-railroad worker from Maryland who ran a West Virginia scrap yard while collecting disability checks will spend 18 months in prison for tax evasion.

Fifty-year-old Kenneth Harold Hogan of Oldtown, Md., was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Martinsburg earlier this week on a misdemeanor count of making false statements and a felony count of tax evasion.

Hogan retired with a back injury in 1995 and collected disability, claiming he had no income.

Prosecutors say he fraudulently collected federal benefits from 2006 through 2008. They say the government overpaid him more than $128,000 after he started Scrap Brothers Inc. in Paw Paw.

Judge Gina Groh also ordered Hogan to repay the U.S. Railroad Retirement board and pay the Internal Revenue Service nearly $91,000.

Hogan will self-report to prison.