{"id":50423,"date":"2022-07-20T17:43:31","date_gmt":"2022-07-21T00:43:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=50423"},"modified":"2022-07-20T17:43:31","modified_gmt":"2022-07-21T00:43:31","slug":"georgia-woman-sentenced-to-prison-for-tax-fraud-scheme-involving-200-people-in-19-states","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=50423","title":{"rendered":"Georgia Woman Sentenced to Prison for Tax Fraud Scheme Involving 200 People in 19 States"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"A Georgia woman was sentenced to four years in prison Wednesday for conspiring to defraud the IRS by promoting a nationwide tax fraud scheme involving more than 200 participants in at least 19 states, officials stated.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to court documents and statements made in court, Yomarie Febres, of Covington, prepared 77 false income tax returns that collectively sought more than $23.8 million in tax refunds from the IRS. <\/span><\/p>\n

Between 2014 and 2016, Febres\u2019s co-conspirators held seminars throughout the country where they promoted the scheme and recruited clients to file false tax returns with the IRS by telling them that their mortgages and other debts entitled them to refunds. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Information collected from clients was then provided to Febres for use in the preparation of false tax returns, according to officials.<\/span><\/p>\n

The tax returns that Febres prepared falsely claimed that banks and other financial institutions had withheld large amounts of income taxes from the clients, which entitled the clients to refunds. <\/span><\/p>\n

In reality, officials stated that the financial institutions had not paid any income to or withheld any taxes from the clients. The false returns Febres prepared caused the IRS to pay out more than $15 million in fraudulent refunds to scheme participants. <\/span><\/p>\n

Febres concealed her role in the scheme by falsely reporting that all of the returns were \u201cself-prepared,\u201d when she had actually created them.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Officials stated that Febres admitted that her co-conspirators charged clients approximately $10,000 to $15,000 in fees to participate in the scheme.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Febres typically received a portion of the fee \u2013 typically $500 per client \u2013 for each tax return she prepared. <\/span><\/p>\n

Febres did not report on her 2014 and 2015 income tax returns the income she received for preparing these false returns. She also claimed false business losses on her personal tax returns.<\/span><\/p>\n

In March, the main promoter of the fraud scheme, Iran Backstrom, was sentenced to more than eight years in prison, and Backstrom\u2019s second-in-command, Mehef Bey, was sentenced to 11 years in prison. <\/span><\/p>\n

In April, Aaron Aqueron, who recruited clients and provided information to Febres for use in the preparation of false tax returns, was sentenced to more than four years in prison.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPlain and simple, you can\u2019t defraud the U.S. government and not face repercussions for your crimes,\u201d said Special Agent in Charge Brian Payne\u00a0of the IRS-Criminal Investigation Tampa Field Office. \u201cOur investigation revealed that Febres not only misrepresented the refunds her clients were entitled to on their tax returns, but she also attempted to conceal her role in the criminal activity by failing to list herself as the tax preparer. Her actions landed her in federal prison with a hefty restitution amount due to the IRS.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to the term of imprisonment, the judge also ordered Febres to serve two years of supervised release and pay $11.1 million in restitution to the IRS.<\/span><\/p>\n

IRS-Criminal Investigation investigated the case.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trial Attorneys Melissa S. Siskind, Kavitha Bondada and Isaiah Boyd III of the Tax Division, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Chauncey A. Bratt for the Middle District of Florida, prosecuted the case.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Georgia woman was sentenced to four years in prison Wednesday for conspiring to defraud the IRS by promoting a nationwide tax fraud scheme involving more than 200 participants in at least…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2717,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-irs"],"yoast_head":"\nGeorgia Woman Sentenced to Prison for Tax Fraud Scheme Involving 200 People in 19 States<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A Georgia woman was sentenced to four years in prison Wednesday for conspiring to defraud the IRS by promoting a nationwide tax fraud scheme involving\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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