An Austin man was sentenced Wednesday in federal court in connection with filing false tax returns, according to the United States Attorney’s Office, District of Minnesota.

According to a statement released this week, on Oct. 8 in St. Paul, United States District Court Judge Paul Magnuson sentenced Kevin J. Morse to 30 months in prison and one year supervised release on five counts of filing false tax returns. Morse, an unknown age, was convicted by a federal jury Feb. 29, following a five-day trial. Morse was convicted of filing false tax returns for the tax years 1996 and 2000. He had previously been convicted in 1999 of filing false tax returns for the tax years 1991-1994. Morse, a farmer between 1996 and 2000, filed returns showing no taxable income or tax owing for four of the five years, and less than $1,000 in taxes owing for 2000. The evidence presented by the government, according to the statement, showed that between 1996 and 2000, Morse netted more than $668,000 on more than $1 million in revenue from farming, interest and dividends, government farm subsidies and rental of his land to other farmers. The court concluded that Morse owed more than $120,000 in taxes for the years involved.