St. Louis, MO - EVELYN SILAS, Florissant, MO, was sentenced to 15 months in prison on 13 counts of tax and fraud charges today by United States District Judge Catherine Perry. 

According to court documents, Silas prepared twenty tax returns for friends and members of her family during the 2009, 2010 and 2011 tax years while employed full-time at the St. Louis Office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).  Silas added phony information about educational expenses and business income and losses to obtain tax credits for those taxpayers.  In all, Silas caused more than $90,000 in tax loss.  Silas kept a large percentage of the refunds generated by the fraudulent returns for herself

The case was investigated by IRS-Criminal Investigation with assistance from the EEOC-Office of the Inspector General.  Assistant United States Attorney Tom Albus handled the case for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.