Press Release
FORMER LAKE WORTH SCHOOL TEACHER PLEADS GUILTY TO PREPARING FRAUDULENT INCOME TAX RETURNS
June 19, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jeffrey H. Sloman, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Daniel W. Auer, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division, announced the guilty plea on June 18, 2009, of defendant Georgia Gaines, 47, of Lake Worth, FL. Gaines pled guilty to five counts of assisting and advising in the preparation of fraudulent income tax returns to the IRS, in violation of Title 26, United States Code, Section 7206(2), and five counts of filing false personal tax returns, which failed to report income she earned from her tax preparation business, in violation of Title 26, United States Code, Section 7206(1). She is scheduled to be sentenced on August 28, 2009 at 9:30 am before U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth A. Marra. At sentencing, Gaines faces a maximum statutory term of imprisonment is 5 years on each of the 10 counts to which she pled guilty and mandatory restitution.
According to the charging document and statements made in court, from 2002 to 2005, Gaines was employed as a school teacher in Palm Beach County. During this time, Gaines prepared Individual Tax Returns claiming tax refunds for herself and on behalf of various taxpayers, knowing that these returns contained materially false information. Specifically, the tax returns prepared by Gaines for her clients included hugely inflated claims for itemized deductions, or in some cases, large business losses, which were false but which reduced the amount of federal income tax that appeared to be owing. In each case, Gaines claimed a tax refund that was based on the inflated deductions. Gaines' tax fraud scheme resulted in fraudulent deductions or business loss claims of more than $1,100,000.00 on the returns she prepared for others.
On her own tax returns, Gaines failed to report income totaling more than $200,000, which she earned between 2002 and 2006 by preparing tax returns for others, according to the Indictment and court statements.
Mr. Sloman commended the investigative efforts of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division. This case is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Lauren Jorgensen and Shaniek Maynard.
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 http://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 http://www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.
Technical comments about this website can be e-mailed to the Webmaster. PLEASE NOTE: The United States Attorney's Office does not respond to non-technical inquiries made to this website. If you wish to make a request for information, you may contact our office at 305-961-9001, or you may send a written inquiry to the United States Attorney's Office, Southern District of Florida, 99 NE 4th Street, Miami, Fl. 33132.