Shanwanda Norris, 33, of Cleveland, was sentenced to nearly two years in prison and ordered to pay $27,876 in restitution after previously pleading guilty tax charges, said Steven M. Dettelbach, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.

U.S. District Judge Solomon Oliver sentenced Norris to 21 months in prison. She pleaded guilty in March to one count of conspiracy to submit false tax refund claims against the United States and five counts of submitting false tax refund claims for the year 2009.

Norris embarked on a scheme at the beginning of the 2009 tax return filing season by which she and co-conspirators would provide fictitious W-2 forms and false dependent information to tax preparation businesses in order to have the businesses prepare and electronically file false income tax returns containing false refund claims, according to court documents.

Norris prepared the fictitious W-2 forms to reflect false income and withholding for non-existent employment. Norris and the co-conspirators would seek to file returns in their own names and in the names of other persons for whom Norris obtained identification information, according to court documents.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Vasile C. Katsaros and Special Assistant United States Attorney Perry D. Mastrocola, following an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division.

 

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