A Georgia woman was sentenced today to 51 months in prison for conspiring to defraud the United States by promoting a nationwide tax fraud scheme involving at least 200 participants from at least 19 states.
Yomarie Febres, of Covington, allegedly created 77 fake income tax returns that sought a total of more than $23.8 million in tax refunds from the IRS, according to federal documents and testimony given in court.
The co-conspirators of Febres organised seminars across the nation between 2014 and 2016, where they advertised the scheme and enlisted clients to submit false tax returns to the IRS by convincing them that their mortgages and other debts qualified them for refunds.
Client data was gathered, and Febres received it to use in creating false tax returns.
False statements were made on the tax forms that Febres completed, claiming that the clients were entitled to refunds because banks and other financial institutions had wrongfully withheld significant amounts of income taxes from them.
In truth, neither the clients’ income nor any taxes were paid to or withheld by the financial institutions. The IRS paid out more than $15 million in false refunds to scheme participants as a result of the fraudulent forms that Febres produced.
By falsely claiming that all of the returns were “self-prepared,” when in fact she had created them, Febres hid her involvement in the plan.
Febres acknowledged that the prices her co-conspirators charged clients to take part…
