A mother and daughter from Beachwood were charged in a 29-count federal indictment with stealing the identities of more than a dozen people and filing false tax returns, said U.S. Attorney Justin E. Herdman and IRS Special Agent in Charge Ryan L. Korner.
Aesha Johnson, 40, and Brittany Williams, 23, were each indicted on one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, 14 counts of wire fraud and 14 counts of aggravated identity theft.
Williams and Johnson, when she was living in West Virginia, conspired together to use stolen identities to file false tax returns with the IRS, seeking tax refunds. Johnson acquired many of these identities through a previous criminal fraud scheme, according to the indictment.
Johnson and Williams used an address associated with the family on East 142nd Street in Cleveland as the address of record for many of the false tax returns. They often communicated with each other using a code that referred to the victims using numbers 1 through 31, and created and used fictitious email accounts in the names of the victims to communicate with the IRS, according to the indictment
Williams filed the false tax returns online, obtained prepaid debit cards in the names of the identity-theft victims and requested the IRS deposit the refunds onto those cards. Williams then withdraw cash or made purchases with the cards, according to the indictment.
“This pair stole people’s identities then used it to steal from taxpayers," Herdman said.
“Tax season is almost here and the indictment of Aesha Johnson and Brittany Williams for committing aggravated identity theft is a powerful reminder of what can happen when you decide to steal from honest taxpayers and the IRS," Korner said. “Filing fraudulent tax returns in the names of other individuals may result in significant harm to those individuals whose identities were stolen, as well as a monetary loss against the U.S. Treasury."
If convicted, the defendant’s sentence will be determined by the Court after reviewing factors unique to this case, including the defendant’s prior criminal record, if any, the defendant’s role in the offense and the characteristics of the violation. In all cases the sentence will not exceed the statutory maximum and in most cases it will be less than the maximum.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Chelsea Rice and Matthew Cronin following an investigation by the IRS.
An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. The defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
