Jackson Woman Sentenced For Stolen Identity Refund Fraud

Jackson, Miss – Ladonna Cooper, age 30, of Jackson, was sentenced to 20 months for conspiracy to defraud the United States, U.S. Attorney Gregory K. Davis announced today.

Cooper, a former employee of the Mississippi Department of Corrections, previously pled guilty to stealing personal identifying information, including names and social security numbers, from the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility located in Rankin County. The information was then used by others to file false tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service. The tax returns claimed that the tax payers were owed a refund. Those refunds were then electronically deposited into various bank accounts in Mississippi belonging to Cooper’s co-conspirators. Following her prison sentence, Cooper will be on supervised release for 3 years during which she must pay restitution to the United States Government in the amount of $222,137.13.

This case was investigated by the U.S. Secret Service and Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation with assistance from the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office, the Mississippi Department of Corrections and the Mississippi Department of Revenue. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Lemon.