U.S. Department of Justice Marcos Daniel Jiménez United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida
	99 N.E. 4th Street Miami, FL 33132 (305) 961-9001

HUSBAND AND WIFE TEAM SENTENCED FOR TAX FRAUD

Marcos Daniel Jiménez, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida; and Brian J. Wimpling, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation announced today that defendant, Willie James Collins, was sentenced by United States District Court Judge Kenneth A. Marra in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, on September 24, 2004, to a term of thirty-seven (37) months in prison and a term of three (3) years of supervised release. On August 20, 2004, Judge Marra sentenced co-defendant, Patricia Ann Sapp, Collins’ wife, to a term of eighteen (18) months in prison and a term of three (3) years of supervised release. A restitution hearing is scheduled for November 12, 2004.

Prior to their respective sentencing hearings, the defendants pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the United States and the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) by obtaining and aiding to obtain the payment and allowance of materially false, fictitious, and fraudulent income tax refund claims from the IRS, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 286. They also pleaded guilty to a count of making, presenting, and filing, and causing to be made, presented, and filed, a materially false, fictitious, and fraudulent claim upon and against the United States and the IRS, knowing that the claim was false, fictitious, and fraudulent, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 287 and 2.

From February 2000, to April 2002, the defendants conspired to defraud the IRS by obtaining and aiding to obtain the payment of fraudulent income tax refund claims from the IRS. The defendants enriched themselves by preparing fraudulent IRS W-2 forms for the purpose of causing the preparation and filing of fraudulent income tax returns with the IRS on behalf of numerous individual taxpayers, claiming refunds that the taxpayers were not entitled to receive, and by thereafter keeping a portion of the money that was refunded by the IRS. The defendants recruited taxpayers and prepared fraudulent IRS W-2 forms on their behalf. They then directed the taxpayers to use the fraudulent IRS W-2 forms in the filing of their income tax returns with the IRS. The fraudulent IRS W-2 forms reflected income that the taxpayers had not earned in order to increase the taxpayers’ earned income tax credit. The defendants caused the preparation of fraudulent federal income tax returns on the taxpayers’ behalf, falsely claiming that these taxpayers were entitled to tax refunds based upon their alleged employment and purported income during the years 1999, 2000, and 2001, when they knew that these taxpayers had not been employed as described in the tax returns and had not earned the income that was reported in the returns. The defendants filed fraudulent claims with the IRS, specifically, false individual income tax returns and supporting documents such as IRS Forms 1040, 1040EZ, 8453, and W-2, claiming tax refunds on behalf of individual taxpayers knowing such claims were fraudulent. The resulting tax harm was approximately $220,537.

Mr. Jiménez commended the investigative efforts of the Internal Revenue Service. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jennifer A. Keene.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida at www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.

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