North Carolina Woman Indicted for Conspiracy to Defraud the IRS, Assisting in the Preparation of False Tax Returns, Wire Fraud and Aggravated Identity Theft

A federal grand jury sitting in Greensboro, North Carolina, returned an indictment today charging Jessica Shanice Taylor, a Rockingham, North Carolina resident, with conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), assisting in the preparation of false tax returns, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Caroline D. Ciraolo, head of the Justice Department’s Tax Division, and U.S. Attorney Ripley Rand for the Middle District of North Carolina.

According to the indictment, from at least January 2012 through April 2016, Taylor worked in a tax preparation business in Rockingham, preparing and filing income tax returns. The indictment alleges that Taylor conspired with the owner of the business and others to prepare and file fraudulent federal income tax returns that included false business income and losses, false wages, false dependents and false deductions. The indictment further alleges that Taylor and her co-conspirators purchased, and sometimes stole, the personal identifying information of individuals, including minor children, and listed these individuals as false dependents on returns in order to generate larger fraudulent refunds for her clients.  According to the indictment, Taylor and her co-conspirators directed some of their clients’ refunds into their own bank accounts.

If convicted, Taylor faces a statutory maximum sentence of 5 years in prison for conspiring to defraud the IRS, a maximum sentence of 3 years in prison for each count of assisting in the preparation of false tax returns, a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for each count of wire fraud, and a mandatory sentence of two years in prison for each count of aggravated identity theft.  In addition, Taylor faces a term of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties.

An indictment is not a finding of guilt. It merely alleges that crimes have been committed. A defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Ciraolo and U.S. Attorney Rand thanked agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation, who conducted the investigation, and Trial Attorney Kathryn A. Kimball of the Tax Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Clifton Barrett of the Middle District of North Carolina, who are prosecuting the case.

Additional information about the Tax Division and its enforcement efforts may be found on the division’s website.