Repeat Tax Fraud Offender Returns To Prison For Thirty-Month Sentence

BATON ROUGE, LA – Acting United States Attorney Corey R. Amundson announced that U.S. District Judge Shelly D. Dick sentenced BELVIN F. TYSON, age 61, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana to serve thirty (30) months in federal prison following her conviction for tax fraud. TYSON was ordered to make restitution to the United States Treasury totaling $100,077 and pay a special assessment of $200. Finally, following her release from prison, TYSON will be required to serve a two-year term of supervised release.

On March 30, 2017, TYSON plead guilty to one count of impeding the due administration of the IRS laws, in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7212, and one count of access device fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1029(a)(3).

As TYSON, a professional tax preparer, admitted in court in connection with her guilty pleas last March, she fraudulently manipulated her clients’ Schedule A deductions and Schedule C income amounts, and added fraudulent dependents to their returns, in order to decrease their tax liability and increase their tax refunds.

To add the fraudulent dependents, TYSON obtained and then sold the personal identifiable information of other individuals to her clients, and then used the information in preparing her clients’ tax returns. TYSON’s fraudulent conduct in tax years 2011 and 2012 resulted in a loss of approximately $100,077 to the United States Treasury. At the time she committed this offense, she was still on federal supervised release for a prior federal tax crime, which she committed in 2009 and for which she was sentenced to serve ten (10) months in federal prison.

Acting U.S. Attorney Amundson stated, “We will continue to aggressively prosecute individuals who interfere with the Internal Revenue Service’s ability to collect taxes. It is critical to this nation that all citizens comply with our revenue laws. This defendant’s pattern of fraudulent conduct cannot be tolerated, and her stiff sentence in this case should send her and other fraudulent tax preparers a strong message. I appreciate the work and effort of the special agents and prosecutors in bringing this defendant to justice.”

Special Agent-in-Charge Jerome R. McDuffie stated, “To the repeat tax cheats, tax fraudsters, and individuals that willfully prepare fraudulent Federal Income Tax Returns for themselves or others, know this: the Special Agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation are watching and doing everything within the power of the law to protect the nation's taxpayers from those who would pilfer and steal from the U.S. Treasury. You can run, but you can't hide.”

This case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service—Criminal Investigation Division (IRS-CI) and the United States Attorney’s Office. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica M.P. Thornhill.