A Tucson woman, Clariece Burden-Stelly, pleaded guilty on July 19, 2018, to false claims and wire fraud in connection to the filing of numerous false Federal income tax returns. Burden-Stelly agreed to a sentencing range of 18 to 27 months’ imprisonment and also agreed to pay restitution of $19,079.02.
According to her plea agreement, Burden-Stelly knowingly devised and executed a scheme to defraud to obtain United States Treasury funds by filing false, fictitious, and fraudulent federal income tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Under the scheme to defraud, Burden-Stelly electronically filed or caused the electronic filing of the fraudulent federal tax returns for herself and other individuals to obtain fraudulent federal income tax refunds. The fraudulent federal tax returns contained false wages and withholding that Burden-Stelly knew were false. Burden-Stelly used the IRS Employer Identification Numbers (EIN’s) of Burden-Stelly’s former employers without authorization to file and/or cause the filing of the false and fraudulent wage and withholding information with the fraudulent federal tax returns.
The total amount of false claims for federal tax refunds between 2011 and 2015 under the aforementioned scheme to defraud is $271,270.00.
The investigation in this case was conducted by Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation.