Press Release
FORMER LAKE WORTH SCHOOL TEACHER SENTENCED FOR PREPARING FRAUDULENT INCOME TAX RETURNS
September 29, 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 that defendant Georgia Gaines, 47, of Lake Worth, FL, was sentenced today before U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth Marra to one year and a day of imprisonment, to be followed by one year of supervised release as to each of the ten counts to which she pled guilty, with all ten sentences to run concurrently. Gaines previously pled guilty on June 18, 2009 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). Judge Marra also ordered that Gaines pay restitution to the Internal Revenue Service in the amount of $241,841, representing the tax losses from her false returns and those she prepared for others. Judge Marra ordered that Gaines surrender to the Bureau of Prisons to begin serving her prison sentence no later than December 4, 2009.
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.
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