Jackson, Miss – Ciara Gooden, age 24, of Jackson, was sentenced to 30 months for conspiracy to defraud the United States, U.S. Attorney Gregory K. Davis announced today.

Gooden previously pled guilty to her role in a conspiracy to file fraudulent federal income taxes using the social security numbers and dates of birth which had been stolen from the University of Mississippi Medical Center and the Mississippi Department of Correntions.. 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 Gooden and her co-conspirators. Following her prison sentence, Gooden will be on supervised release for 3 years during which she must pay restitution to the United States Government in the amount of $27,579.65.

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.