Milwaukee Woman Indicted for Aiding and Assisting in the Filing of False Federal Income Tax Returns

United States Attorney James L. Santelle for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, announced that on March 10, 2015, a federal grand jury returned a five-count indictment against Tina M. Gentry (age: 47) of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, charging her with filing false claims against the United States for tax refunds in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 287. If convicted of these offenses, Gentry faces a sentence of up to 5 years imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, and up to three years of supervised release on each of the five counts.

According to the indictment, Gentry assisted individuals in falsely obtaining federal income tax refunds from the Internal Revenue Service.  To obtain the refunds, Gentry prepared tax returns claiming false and fraudulent federal taxable income and federal income tax withheld, when she knew that none of the individuals she prepared returns for had federal taxable income or federal income tax withheld.  In total, Gentry caused approximately 112 federal income tax returns to be filed with the Internal Revenue Service, falsely claiming federal income tax refunds of more than $90,000.      

The case was investigated by Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Lisa Wesley.

An indictment is only a charge and not evidence of guilt.  The defendant is presumed innocent and is entitled to a fair trial at which the government must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

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