Woman Pleads Guilty To Preparing False Income Tax Returns

HOUSTON – Nicole Dette Perkins has entered a guilty plea to one count of knowingly presenting a material false, fictitious or fraudulent claim against the United States in the nature of a false U.S. Individual Income Tax Return, announced U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson along with Lucy Cruz, special agent in charge of IRS - Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI).

The plea agreement filed in the public record of the case indicates that Perkins prepared income tax returns for others. As part of those returns, she attached false and fabricated W-2 forms purporting to show wages earned and federal taxes withheld when, in fact, the taxpayers did not work for the alleged employers nor had the alleged withholdings. As part of her plea, Perkins admitted she knowingly attached a fabricated W-2 to a tax return claiming wages and withholdings that resulted in a false claim for an income tax refund and a tax loss to the United States of $7,889.

Perkins further agreed in the plea agreement that for purposes of sentencing, her conduct resulted in an intended tax loss to the United States of $346,044. The intended tax loss included not only the intended tax loss on tax returns Perkins prepared for others, but also the intended tax loss of more than $20,000 on three of Perkins’s own income tax returns. Perkins has agreed to pay restitution to the United States of $66,332. 

U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal, who accepted the plea today, has set sentencing for June 25, 2015, at which time Perkins faces up to five years in federal prison and a possible $250,000 fine.

She was permitted to remain on bond pending that hearing.

This case was the result of an IRS-CI investigation and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles J. Escher.