Prattville Woman Receives 18-Month Sentence for Making False Claims on Tax Refunds

            Montgomery, Alabama – On Tuesday, September 3, 2019, a Prattville, Alabama resident, Candace Brie Betances, 43, received an 18-month sentence for submitting false tax returns to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), announced United States Attorney Louis V. Franklin, Sr. The sentence follows Betances’s guilty plea to one count of submitting false claims to the government.

            According to court documents, between July of 2015 and July of 2016, Betances submitted to the IRS four individual income tax returns. On each return, Betances claimed that she was entitled to receive a substantial tax refund. In total, Betances asked the IRS to pay her $357,183. She did so despite knowing that she was not entitled to receive the refunds. Fortunately, the IRS detected Betances’s false statements and did not pay her the requested refunds.

            At sentencing, the judge described Betances’s offense as a “serious” one. He ordered that Betances spend nine months of her sentence in prison and nine months on home detention with electronic monitoring. In ordering Betances to custody, the judge stated that a custodial sentence was necessary to deter others from submitting false tax documents. She will also be subject to two years of supervised release after serving her sentence.

            “Too many people in our community view the IRS as a piggybank,” commented United States Attorney Franklin. “I hope that this case serves as a reminder that we are all responsible for paying taxes and that those who try to line their pockets with the hard-earned tax dollars of others will be punished.”

            The IRS’s Criminal Investigations Division (IRS-CI) investigated this case, with assistance from the Autauga County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant United States Attorney Jonathan S. Ross prosecuted the case.