8 sentenced in tax fraud scheme

A federal judge has handed down sentences ranging from probation to more than 13 years in prison for six Phenix City and two Columbus area residents in a $24 million Stolen Identity Refund Fraud scheme that used identities of Fort Benning soldiers and employees at various state agencies to file fraudulent tax returns, U.S. Attorney George L. Beck Jr. announced Friday.

Sentences were issued for Tracy Mitchell, Talarius Paige, Latasha Mitchell, Dameisha Mitchell, Sharonda Johnson and Cynthia Johnson, all of Phenix City. Mequetta Snell-Quick of Columbus and Patrice Taylor of Midland also were sentenced in the scheme that spanned over three years.

Tracy Mitchell was sentenced to 13.3 years; Paige to five years; Latasha Mitchell to three years; Dameisha Mitchell to 5.5 years; and Sharonda Johnson to 2 years in prison. Cynthia Johnson was given two years probation. Taylor was given one year and Snell-Quick received two years in prison.

Acting Assistant Attorney General Caroline D. Ciraolo of the Justice Department's Tax Division said the sentences handed down after each defendant pleaded guilty demonstrates the tax division's commitment to rooting out Stolen Identity Refund Fraud across the nation and prosecuting individuals at every level.

"Victimizing soldiers, citizens and the U.S. Treasury will not be tolerated, and the Tax Division will continue to seek significant prison time for anyone involved in these schemes and ask courts to order defendants to pay full restitution to the government," she said in statement.

Richard Weber, chief of IRS-Criminal Investigation, said every available resource in collaboration with law enforcement partners will be used to combat the serious crimes.

"Today's sentencing of eight criminals who used the identities of American service members and hospital patients to enrich themselves by stealing tax refunds demonstrates the depths of how far criminals will stoop and the extent to which IRS CI will go to fight identity theft," Weber said.

Authorities said restitution amounts will be determined after additional testimony and evidence is presented.

Keisha Lanier, who is scheduled for sentencing on Aug. 24, and Tracy Mitchell were identified as leaders of the identity theft ring in which they and co-defendants filed more than 9,000 returns claiming $24 million in fraudulent claims. The IRS paid out almost $10 million in fraudulent refunds.

Various sources were used in filing the false returns including U.S. Army, some Alabama state agencies, a Georgia call center and employee records from a Georgia company.

Tracy Mitchell worked at Fort Benning's Martin Army Hospital and had access to identification data of military personnel, including soldiers deployed to Afghanistan. She used the personal information to file false tax returns.

In a related case, Tamika Floyd stole personal information from two Alabama state agencies and provided names to Lanier of Seale, Ala. To file false tax returns, Lanier provided names to Tracy Mitchell, Latasha Mitchell, Paige and others.

Lanier also obtained stolen identities from the Alabama Department of Corrections. Paige and Taylor worked in a call center for a Columbus payment-processing company and stole identities. Paige used those identities to file false tax returns and filed some returns from Tracy Mitchell's residence.

Tracy and Latasha Mitchell also obtained files from a Columbus company. To file the returns, defendants obtained Electronic Filing Numbers in the names of false tax businesses and applied for bank products from financial institutions. Anticipated tax returns were directed to prepaid debit cards, U.S. Treasury Checks and to financial institutions, which issued refunds by checks or debit cards. Defendants simply printed out refund checks from the check stock sent to their homes when refunds were sent through financial institutions.

Financial institutions stopped allowing defendants to print out tax refund checks. The defendants, Mitchell and her family, then turned to postal employees who provided addresses on their routes to have checks mailed. The checks were obtained from the mail for a fee.

Johnson, an employee at the money center at a Walmart in Columbus, agreed to cash checks and communicated with Dameisha and Tracy Mitchell via text message. To conceal the crime, multiple individuals were used to bring fraudulent checks to Johnson.

Tamaica Hosksins, a defendant in the same indictment, was previously sentenced to 12 months and Floyd was sentenced to 7.3 years in prison.

This story was originally published August 7, 2015 at 10:30 PM with the headline "8 sentenced in tax fraud scheme ."