Alabama Women Sentenced to 46 Months in Prison for Tax Fraud and Identity Theft

WASHINGTON – Ora Mae Adamson, a resident of Montgomery County, Ala., was sentenced to 46 months in prison, the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced today.

According to court documents, between March 2009 and September 2009, Adamson conspired with others to defraud the United States by filing 158 false federal income tax returns.  As part of the scheme, Adamson and her co-conspirators fraudulently obtained the names and Social Security numbers of individuals.  Adamson would then file false tax returns in these individuals’ names, without their authorization.  The tax returns falsely claimed the first-time homebuyer’s credit and fuel tax credit.  The refunds from the false returns were deposited into bank accounts controlled by Adamson and other co-conspirators. 

In all, the conspiracy defrauded the United States of $621,738. One of Adamson’s co-conspirators, Jeffery Ceaser, was sentenced to 36 months in prison on March 2, 2011.  

In addition to 46 months in prison, Adamson was also ordered to pay $621,738.41 in restitution to the United States.

Ronald A. Cimino, Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice’s Tax Division, and Leura G. Canary, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Alabama, commended the IRS special agents who investigated this case and Tax Division Trial Attorneys Jason Poole and Michael Boteler, who prosecuted the case.

More information about the Justice Department’s Tax Division and its enforcement efforts is available at www.usdoj.gov/tax/.   Additional information about the Justice Department’s recent efforts to combat fraudulent claims for the first-time homebuyer tax credit is available here