Nine-year sentence for woman in $672,000 tax fraud scam

By JOSH POLTILOVE | The Tampa Tribune
Published: December 09, 2011
Updated: December 09, 2011 - 10:57 AM

TAMPA --

A woman who committed more than $ 670,000 in tax fraud and mail fraud was sentenced Thursday to nine years in federal prison, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

U.S. District Judge Virginia Hernandez Covington also ordered Shawntrece Sims to repay the U.S. Treasury $ 672,887 and forfeit profits from her scheme to defraud the government.

Sims pleaded guilty in March to federal crimes of tax fraud. She admitted to preparing and electronically filing false income tax returns to get tax refunds totaling $ 263,004 for the 2008 tax year, court documents state.

After agreeing to cooperate with investigators, she was allowed to remain free while awaiting her sentencing hearing.

But a judge revoked Sims' bail Aug. 11 after the prosecution presented evidence that she continued the tax fraud even after pleading guilty. After she signed her plea agreement, she stole an additional $ 409,000, according to government court pleadings.

"Law enforcement has also identified Sims using debit cards that were preloaded with income tax refunds issued to deceased persons at ATMs, medical facilities and other retailers," court documents state.

While free on bail, Sims used cash to pay a fertility clinic to undo her tubal ligation to enable her to become pregnant before her sentencing hearing, the prosecution says.

Sims tried to hide her fraud from investigators by committing the fraud partly using Internet service at a hotel that employs her half sister, Tiffany McKinney, according to the court pleadings. McKinney was released last year from state prison, where she was serving a sentence for manslaughter.

Their brother, Sedrick McKinney, was notorious in the late 1980s, when he became a symbol of revolving door justice after serving only four months of a nine-year prison term for shooting and paralyzing a baby during a street-corner drug deal. He later was sent to federal prison on a weapons offense after shooting a man in the face. He has since been released from federal prison.

Read More @ Source

Video: Tens of thousands gather for Moscow 'vote fraud' protest

The biggest opposition rally in recent Russian history has taken place in the capital. The protest against the results of Russia's December 4 parliamentary election has drawn an estimated turnout of between 25000 and 40000. The rally has been held on Bolotnaya Square, in Central Moscow, on December 10 between 2 pm and 6 pm. RT on Twitter twitter.com RT on Facebook www.facebook.com

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