A Portland, Oregon woman was sentenced to 72 months in prison today for conspiring to file tax returns that claimed more than $1.2 million in fraudulent refunds, announced Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Billy J. Williams for the District of Oregon. According to documents filed with the court, Danyelle Calcagno conspired to file at least 224 individual income tax returns using names and socials security numbers of individuals that she directly obtained or acquired with the assistance of Latisha L. Simmons of Phoenix, Arizona. To fraudulently claim the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Additional Child Tax Credit, Calcagno included in the returns fictitious business income appearing to meet eligibility requirements for those credits. Calcagno filed the fraudulent returns using Internet access from Portland-area hotels to disguise the true source of the filing. Calcagno directed the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to deposit the claimed refunds into different bank accounts and prepaid debit cards that she could access in order to divide the proceeds of the fraud and make it more difficult for law enforcement to identify her as the filer of the returns. In total, Calcagno and her co-conspirators filed returns seeking at least $1,220,246 in refunds. In addition to the term of prison imposed by U.S. District Court Judge Robert E. Jones, Calcagno was ordered to serve three years of supervised release and to pay restitution in the amount of $742,754 to the IRS. Calcagno previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the government, aggravated identity theft and wire fraud. In October 2015, Simmons was sentenced to serve 39 months in prison for her role in the scheme. Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Goldberg and U.S. Attorney Williams thanked special agents of IRS–Criminal Investigation, who conducted the investigation, and Trial Attorney Leslie A. Goemaat of the Tax Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Quinn Harrington, who prosecuted the case.
Additional information about the Tax Division and its enforcement efforts may be found on the division’s website.
Source: US Department of Justice
