Omaha Woman Sentenced for Tax Fraud

United States Attorney Joseph P. Kelly announced that Niquisha Taylor, age 37, of Omaha, Nebraska, was sentenced today by the Honorable Laurie Smith Camp having previously pled guilty to conspiracy to defraud the government with respect to claims.  Taylor was sentenced to 3 years of supervised release, 120 hours of community service, and $280,442 in restitution to the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

From January 2012 until December 2014, Taylor and co-defendant Latasha Ellis conspired to defraud the United States and the United States Department of the Treasury by obtaining and aiding to obtain the payment of a fraudulent claim by filing and assisting others in filing false tax returns.  As part of their scheme, tax returns were filed that had false Schedules C, Profit or Loss from Business.  By including false Schedules C, an individual’s earned income was inflated which had the effect of maximizing the amount of Earned Income Tax Credit the taxpayer would receive back. There were 55 tax returns filed as part of their scheme.  Ellis has pled guilty and is pending sentencing.

The case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigations.