On January 24, 2018, Clariece Burden-Stelly, of Tucson, was indicted for filing false claims, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft.
According to the indictment, Burden-Stelly devised a fraud scheme to obtain false and fraudulent federal income tax refunds by filing false, fictitious, and fraudulent federal individual income tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service.
To execute her scheme to defraud the U.S. Treasury, beginning in January, 2012, and continuing through April, 2015, Burden-Stelly began filing and attempting to file fraudulent tax returns using her name and social security number and also the names and social security numbers of other individuals.
To further execute her scheme to defraud, the Defendant submitted false, fictitious, and fraudulent Wage and Tax Statements, Form W-2, to falsely inflate income and deductions to obtain the fraudulent tax refunds.
The fraudulent tax refunds disbursed under the Defendant’s scheme to defraud were disbursed on pre-paid cards or by check. A total of $28,696.00 represents proceeds obtained as a result of the offenses.