Tennessee Woman Sentenced to Prison for Filing False Claims for Refund

Filed False Claims for Refund Causing Loss of More Than $1 Million

2016-08-23

A Nashville, Tennessee, on 22 August woman was sentenced to 18 months in prison for filing false claims for refund, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Caroline D. Ciraolo, head of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney David Rivera for the Middle District of Tennessee.

Karen Liane Miller, 61, admitted that from about August 2008 until about July 2009, she knowingly prepared and submitted multiple false federal income tax returns to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on behalf of her friends, family and herself. The returns reported false amounts of taxable income on attached Forms 1099-OID (Original Issue Discount) and Forms 1099-A that Miller created and fraudulently represented to have been issued by financial institutions. The returns also reported identical or near-identical false amounts of federal income tax withheld from the fictitious income to generate claims for tax refunds that were significantly higher than what the taxpayers were entitled to receive. Miller filed 48 fraudulent tax returns that falsely claimed more than $19.8 million in refunds. The IRS issued $1,003,238 in refunds for eight of the 48 fraudulent returns.

In addition to the prison term, Miller was ordered to serve two years of supervised release and to pay restitution to the IRS in the amount of $939,835.62.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice