The owner of a tax preparation business was sentenced Thursday to 184 months in prison, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service announced.
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Owner Marsha Elmore of Wetumpka used her business, Community Tax, to run a scheme to steal tax refunds by filing false tax returns with stolen identities, according to a release from the Department of Justice.
Elmore had been indicted by a federal grand jury on Aug. 31, 2011 and pleaded guilty on Nov. 15, 2011 to one count each of filing false claims, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. Elmore had previously been sentenced to 60 months in prison for a violation of supervised release, which was based on the conduct for which Elmore was sentenced Thursday.
The sentence of 184 months is to run consecutively to her previous sentence of 60 months.
Elmore’s fraudulent activity ran from at least 2009 until July 2011, when she was arrested by the IRS on a criminal complaint. She unlawfully obtained the names, Social Security numbers and dates of birth of various individuals and used them to file false tax returns through Community Tax, according to the release.
The tax returns claimed refunds that were directed to bank accounts and debit cards that Elmore controlled. She also filed false tax returns using online filing websites. All together, Community Tax and Elmore were linked to almost 1,400 tax returns during this time period.
In her plea agreement, Elmore admitted that she personally filed many of the returns, a number of which were false. In sentencing Elmore, the court found that the intended tax loss was just over $2.5 million, according to the release.
“This case is an example of how criminals use innocent people’s identities for their own financial gain,” stated George Beck, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Alabama. “To steal these victims’ identities and use them to file false tax returns not only makes the U.S. tax payer a victim, but also victimizes the unsuspecting person whose identity has been stolen. We will continue to do everything possible under the law to protect these unsuspecting victims from these criminals.”
U.S. District Judge Mark Fuller also ordered Elmore to pay $1,157,241 in restitution.
The case was investigated by special agents of the IRS – Criminal Investigation and was prosecuted by Tax Division trial attorneys Jason H. Poole and Michael Boteler and Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Brown.
