FILING FALSE TAX RETURNS MEANS PRISON TERM FOR LAREDO WOMAN
CONTACT: Dixie A. Morrow, Assistant U.S. Attorney
Phone: 956/723-6523

(LAREDO) United States Attorney Michael Shelby announced today Marta Martinez, a Laredo resident, was sentenced to serve 18 months in federal prison, without parole, for each of three tax fraud convictions. The sentences are to run concurrently.

Martinez had previously pled guilty to three income tax fraud counts, each representing one of the three varieties of fraud in which she engaged between 1996 and 1997. Martinez pled guilty to having made and subscribed false statements on her own 1995 U.S. Individual Income Tax Return; to have knowingly presented false or fraudulent claims against the Government, in the form of U.S. Individual Income Tax Returns filed in the names of existing taxpayers without their knowledge or consent; and to having aided and assisted as a tax preparer in the preparation of false Income Tax Returns filed on behalf of taxpayers.

In addition to the prison term, Chief Judge George P. Kazen also ordered Martinez to pay the IRS $4, 772 in restitution and to be supervised after her release from prison for a total of 3 years.