Two Milwaukee Women Sentenced in Refund Fraud Scheme

Who? – Roshunda Smith, 34, and Linda Fay Townsend, 46

What? – Filed more than 170 fraudulent returns for family and friends seeking approximately $1.5 million in federal income tax refunds.

How? – The filings listed false employment, income, dependents, tax withholding and estimated tax payments.

The Sentences? – Smith got 46 moths and $450,000 restitution charge; Townsend got 24 months / $70,000.

It is unbelievable to me that these schemes are still cropping up so much this tax season. For somebody who pays attention to IRS press releases and IRS news, I see that they are hot on the trail of any who would dare to perpetrate tax fraud, especially when the criminal is preying on the elderly and uneducated.  But maybe that’s the problem.  Maybe the average person does not see how the IRS has turned things up a notch.  The IRS should probably do a better job of publicizing each time they nail somebody, not only when that somebody is a celebrity.

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