U.S. District Judge Rodney W. Sippel sentenced a St. Louis tax preparer, Shasherese M. Reed, to five years of probation and ordered her to pay $230,000 in restitution for preparing fraudulent tax returns. Reed was found guilty of preparing at least 41 false tax returns for 13 taxpayers, resulting in a loss of at least $312,192 to the IRS.
According to a sentencing memorandum filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Clow, Reed fabricated businesses and claimed various false expenses to inflate the refunds her clients received from the IRS. These included fictitious business expenses, medical and dental costs, mortgage interest, state and local taxes, and deductible employee expenses.
Reed falsely identified her daughter as the paid tax preparer on these returns and filed them under her daughter's business name, Majac Money. This was after the IRS had revoked Reed's Preparer Tax Identification Number (PTIN) assigned to her own business, Sha-Sha Taxes, in 2015 due to previous submissions of false tax returns.
The sentencing memo states that "rather than be deterred by the previous IRS investigation," Reed continued with her illegal activities. During the investigation, she even prepared a fraudulent return for an undercover IRS Criminal Investigation agent without confirming if the agent owned a business.
From 2017 to 2021, Reed charged clients hundreds of dollars per return preparation, earning approximately $378,026 in fees. In February, she pleaded guilty to two counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false and fraudulent tax returns.
The case was investigated by IRS Criminal Investigation and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Clow.
