Jackson, Miss - Kimberly Givens, Nathaniel Cooper, and Latorra Gross were sentenced by U.S. District Judge Carlton W. Reeves for their roles in a conspiracy to obtain fraudulent tax refunds after falsely claiming the First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit, announced U.S. Attorney Gregory K. Davis and Special Agent in Charge Jerome R. McDuffie with IRS - Criminal Investigation.
Kimberly Givens, 43, of Sandhill, was sentenced to 26 months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release for conspiracy to make a false claim. She was also ordered to pay $47,625.22 in restitution.
Nathaniel Cooper, 30, of Morton, was sentenced to 22 months in federal prison for making a false claim. His federal sentence will run concurrently with his state prison sentence. He was ordered by Judge Reeves to three years of supervised release to run consecutively to his supervision term in the state system. He was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $8,749.77.
Latorra Gross, 30, of Sandhill, was ordered to serve a three year term of probation for making a false claim. She was also ordered to pay a $1,000 fine.
During the course of the scheme, Givens and her co-conspirators filed the false tax returns after obtaining identity information from third parties under false pretenses and creating false documents to support the information contained on the returns. For the tax year 2008 alone, Givens filed over 200 fraudulent tax returns and obtained hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraudulent tax refunds. Those refunds were directed to a bank account which Givens controlled. As a part of the investigation, the government seized and forfeited $184,694.83.
"The filing of false tax returns and the abuse of the First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit program are serious crimes. It is critically important that taxpayers who play by the rules do not end up paying for refunds to people who commit fraud and blatantly lie on the forms submitted to the IRS," stated Jerome R. McDuffie, Special Agent in Charge, IRS - Criminal Investigation. "Givens and her co-conspirators have been brought to justice for their actions. Today is a win for the law abiding taxpayers whose interests we have sworn to protect."
U.S. Attorney Davis praised the efforts of the special agents with IRS-Criminal Investigation who investigated the case and Assistant U.S. Attorney John Dowdy, who prosecuted the case.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
