An Atlanta, Ga., woman has been sentenced to 56 months in prison for her role in filing more than 5,000 phony federal tax returns. Tiffany Lewis received the sentence for her role in the scheme that caused the Internal Revenue Service to issue more than $3.7 million in fraudulent refunds.
Lewis and co-conspirators filed the returns, many using stolen personal IDs, between January 2010 and April 2014. The co-conspirators were not named in the press release detailing Lewis’ sentence.
Lewis and cohorts claimed more than $11.9 million in refunds. The money they receive was deposited into bank accounts they controlled. Lewis also lied about her role in the fraud when interviewed by a Special Agent of the IRS Criminal Investigation Division.
Besides receiving the prison sentence, Lewis was ordered to serve three years of supervised release and to pay to the United States $3,799,991 in restitution.
Bob Scott has provided information to the tax and accounting community since 1991, first as technology editor of Accounting Today, and from 1997 through 2009 as editor of its sister publication, Accounting Technology. He is known throughout the industry for his depth of knowledge and for his high journalistic standards. Scott has made frequent appearances as a speaker, moderator and panelist and events serving tax and accounting professionals. He has a strong background in computer journalism as an editor with two former trade publications, Computer+Software News and MIS Week and spent several years with weekly and daily newspapers in Morris County New Jersey prior to that. A graduate of Indiana University with a degree in journalism, Bob is a native of Madison, Ind