Press Releases
WOMAN PLEADS GUILTY TO PREPARING FRAUDULENT TAX RETURNS FOR TAXPAYERS
March 5, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ELAINE MITCHELL- 56, of Amite, Louisiana, pled guilty today before U. S. District Judge Helen Berrigan to making false claims against the government, announced U. S. Attorney Jim Letten.
According to the factual basis, the IRS received numerous income tax returns from a small geographic area in the Eastern District of Louisiana. The common pattern for all of the questionable returns in the scheme was the reported false income was derived from “household wages.” Attached to all of the returns was a hand-written document listing the type of work performed, the employers purportedly worked for and the amount of “household wages” earned by the individuals submitting the returns.
Special Agents of the IRS interviewed the individuals who had submitted the suspicious returns and determined that MITCHELL had prepared the returns for the individuals. It was determined that MITCHELL would provide the taxpayers with these self-employment letters which stated that the individual was employed by people who paid them an amount of money for performing household jobs and duties, when in truth, as the defendant well knew, the taxpayers had performed no work during the taxable year.
The total of the false claims against the government totaled $117, 829.00, of which the government paid $77,092.00 before the scheme was discovered.
MITCHELL faces a maximum sentence of five (5) years imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, three (3) years supervised release, and a $100 special assessment. MITCHELL will be sentenced on June 11, 2008 at 9:00 A.M.
The case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service. The prosecution is being handled by Assistant United States Attorney G. Dall Kammer.
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