Goldsboro woman sentenced for tax fraud
By From staff reports
Published in News on August 7, 2013 1:46 PM
A Goldsboro tax preparer has been sentenced to nearly five years in federal prison for her role in a scheme to file nearly $2 million in false income tax forms.
Tracie Jones Mathis, 47, was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Louise W. Flanagan to 57 months in prison followed by three years of probation.
Additionally, she was ordered to pay $1,094,742 in restitution joint and separately with Evelyn Gomez-Allen.
Ms. Mathis was charged on Sept. 20, 2012, with conspiring to defraud the United States. She pleaded guilty to that charge on Jan. 16, 2013.
According to the investigation, Ms. Mathis and her co-conspirators agreed to defraud the United States by engaging in a scheme to obtain the payment of fraudulent claims through the filing of materially false income tax forms.
Particularly, Ms. Mathis and her co-conspirators engaged in the fraudulent manufacturing of W-2 forms and identification documents to serve as supporting documentation for fraudulent 1040 forms.
"The defendant pleaded guilty to defrauding the government of nearly $2 million in phony tax returns, thereby enriching herself at the expense of the American taxpayer," said Brock D. Nicholson, special agent in charge of ICE Homeland Security Investigations in Atlanta. "HSI will continue to work with our partners at the IRS and the U.S. Attorney's Office to hold accountable those who seek to game the system through criminal activity."
Nicholson oversees HSI investigations in Georgia and the Carolinas.
"Tax fraud schemes rob the United States of needed funds," said Special Agent in Charge Jeannine A. Hammett, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation. "IRS-CI will vigorously pursue those who perpetrate these crimes in an effort to defraud the United States government."
Investigation of this case was conducted by Homeland Security Investigations, the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation and the Wilson Police Department.