St. Louis, MO - MARSHA HARRINGTON,CALVIN SHAW and LARRY CORNER, all of the St. Louis area, have entered guilty pleas to one felony count of conspiracy to commit identity theft and one felony count of identity theft. Corner appeared in court Tuesday afternoon, Harrington and Shaw entered their pleas in July. All defendants appeared before United States District Judge Catherine D. Perry. Sentencing for Corner has been set for Nov. 12, 2014. Harrington and Shaw will be sentenced in October.
According to court documents, Marsha Harrington used her employment as manager of the Clinton-Peabody Housing Complex to acquire social security numbers and other personal information from tenants, and used this information to file false tax returns. Co-defendants Calvin Shaw and Larry Corner also provided identity information to Harrington. After Harrington filed the false tax returns, she kept the tax refund. If the tax return used a stolen name and social security number provided by Shaw and/or Corner, she shared those funds with them respectively.
"Misusing her position of trust as Manager of the Clinton-Peabody Housing Complex, Ms. Harrington stole the identities of people and filed false tax returns in their names," said Sybil Smith, Special Agent in Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation. "Let me be clear that we will continue to pursue the criminals who seek to willfully defraud the United States Treasury and blatantly disregard the victims of their schemes."
Conspiracy to commit identity theft carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and/or fines up to $250,000 and identity theft carries a maximum of 15 years in prison and or fines up to $250,000. In determining the actual sentences, a Judge is required to consider the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, which provide recommended sentencing ranges.
This case was investigated by IRS Criminal Investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Stephen Casey is handling the case for the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
