Woman in Prison for BP Oil Spill Fraud Sentenced to Two More Years for Food Stamp Fraud and Tax Evasion

BIRMINGHAM -- A federal judge today sentenced a McCalla woman to two years in prison for food stamp fraud and evading income taxes. The woman currently is in prison for attempting to defraud the Gulf Coast oil spill claims fund, announced U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation, Special Agent in Charge Veronica Hyman-Pillot, and U.S. Department of Agriculture Office of Inspector General, Investigations, Special Agent in Charge Karen Citizen-Wilcox.

            U.S. District Judge L. Scott Coogler sentenced SHERICA LACEY LEE, 33, on one count each of tax evasion and wire fraud. Lee pleaded guilty to the charges in August. Lee is serving a one year and day prison sentence for attempting to defraud the Gulf Coast oil spill fund. She is scheduled to complete that sentence in January, and the time she serves between now and then will be applied to the two-year sentenced she received today.

            In accordance with Lee's plea agreement with the government on the food stamp fraud and tax evasion charges, Judge Coogler ordered her to forfeit $23,757 to the government as proceeds of illegal activity. She also must pay that same amount in restitution, plus interest, to the Department of Agriculture for food stamp benefits she was not eligible to receive between July 2009 and June 2013, and she must pay $134,448 in restitution, plus interest, to the IRS for taxes not paid in 2008 through 2010. Judge Coogler fined Lee $7,500.

            According to Lee's guilty plea, she evaded income taxes for 2008 by preparing and submitting a personal tax return that falsely reported she had no taxable income, when she had $229,147 in taxable income that year. Lee ran a tax preparation business, Lacey's Income Tax Service, with several locations in the Birmingham area. Between 2008 and 2010, Lee's company filed more than 2,000 tax returns and generated about $2.5million in receipts.

            Lee committed wire fraud as part of a scheme to obtain federal benefits from the USDA Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. USDA administered SNAP, formerly known as the Federal Food Stamp Program, in conjunction with the Alabama Department of Human Resources.

            Although Lee had income in excess of $200,000 in 2009, she applied for SNAP benefits by falsely stating on her application to DHR that she had no household income, cash on hand, or money in the bank, according to her plea. Lee submitted additional false application forms in 2010, 2011 and 2012. Her applications caused the $23,757 in SNAP benefits to be wired to an account established in her name and loaded monthly onto an Electronic Benefit Transfer card, which could be used as a debit card to purchase food.

            IRS, Criminal Investigation, and USDA-OIG investigated the case, which Assistant U.S. Attorney Pat Meadows prosecuted.

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