Wednesday, February 13th, 2019 @ 4:38AM

CFEG reports that on April 16, 2018, in a federal district court in the Western District of Missouri, a former Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employee was sentenced for filing false tax returns. She was initially charged with this offense, plus aggravated identity theft, in January 2017, in a 15-count indictment. In September 2017, she pled guilty to filing false tax returns. https://www.treasury.gov/tigta/oi_highlights.shtml

At all times relevant, the IRS employee was a contact representative at the IRS Service Center in Kansas City, Missouri. She was employed by the IRS from 2006 until June 2015, when she resigned. From at least February 2012 and continuing to about February 2014, she intentionally devised a scheme for the purpose of obtaining funds for herself and others by preparing false tax returns, in which she used false or stolen information to pay her own personal expenses and the expenses of family members. https://www.treasury.gov/tigta/oi_highlights.shtml

Specifically, this IRS employee prepared false tax returns for Tax Years 2011, 2012, and 2013 for approximately 13 of her friends and family members, as well as for herself. As part of her scheme, she included false entries to lower the individual tax liability or increase refunds of her friends, family members, and herself. These false entries included false wages and occupations, fraudulent Federal income tax withholdings, false Schedule C entries, fraudulent dependents, and false education expenses and credits. https://www.treasury.gov/tigta/oi_highlights.shtml

The IRS employee prepared the false returns from her residence, her boyfriend’s residence, and from the IRS Service Center, Kansas City, Missouri. She charged approximately $150 each for the preparation of some of the returns, but did not sign the returns as a “paid preparer” and did not provide copies of the completed returns to her friends and family members. She directed refunds from seven of the false returns be deposited on a prepaid debit card mailed to her at her home address. She was linked to 27 fraudulent returns. https://www.treasury.gov/tigta/oi_highlights.shtml

This IRS employee was sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison followed by one year of supervised release. She was further ordered to pay $137,483.37 in restitution to the IRS and is prohibited from employment as a tax preparer or involvement in tax preparation for others in any capacity. https://www.treasury.gov/tigta/oi_highlights.shtml

Posted by cfegov
Categories: 2018 CRIMINAL CONVICTIONS OF IRS EMPLOYEES, Criminal Convictions of IRS Employees for 2018, IRS Employees Engage In Tax Refund Identity Fraud