Woman Sentenced to Prison for Tax Refund Fraud

Jenelle Robyn Pinkston, 50, of Corvalis, Oregon and formally of Nashville, Tennessee, was sentenced Friday to three years in prison for her involvement in a scheme to fraudulently obtain income tax refunds, announced U.S. Attorney Don Cochran for the Middle District of Tennessee.

Pinkston was charged in a criminal information on January 23, 2017, and pleaded guilty in January 2018. 

According to documents filed with the court and evidence presented at the sentencing hearing, Pinkston filed 143 fraudulent tax refunds over a ten-month period in 2012, while acting as an independent tax preparer for a Nashville-area tax preparation service.  Pinkston filed the tax returns on behalf of customers of the tax preparation service and also used the identities of prison inmates, without their knowledge, to file false and fraudulent returns. The fraudulent tax returns resulted in refunds totaling $403,615.00, which Pinkston directed to two banks accounts under her control, and caused an actual loss of more than $63,000 to the IRS.

U.S. District Judge William L. Campbell, Jr. ordered Pinkston to serve three years in prison, two years of supervised release and to pay $63,338 in restitution to the IRS.  He also ordered a forfeiture money judgment of $3,185.

This case was investigated by IRS Criminal Investigation and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie N. Toussaint.