Louisiana Woman Sentenced In Stolen Identity Tax Refund Fraud Scheme

A resident of Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana was sentenced today to 24 months in prison for her involvement in a stolen identity tax refund fraud scheme, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Duane A. Evans of the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Jackie Chaney, also known as Jackie Scott, pleaded guilty on Dec. 28, 2016 to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and to commit theft of public money, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.

According to court documents, members of the conspiracy obtained the names and Social Security numbers of individuals for use in filing false tax returns. Chaney and her co-conspirators used this stolen information to prepare false tax returns seeking bogus refunds from the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”).  The IRS issued the refunds in the form of checks or on to prepaid debit cards and Chaney further conspired with others to convert the proceeds into cash.

In addition to the term of imprisonment, U.S. District Court Judge Susie Morgan ordered Chaney to serve two years of supervised release and to pay restitution in the amount of $809,605.00.

Chaney’s co-conspirator, Alicia Washington, previously plead guilty in Feb. 2017 and was sentenced earlier this month to 42 months in prison.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney Zuckerman and U.S. Attorney Evans commended special agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation, who investigated the case, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Hayden Brockett and Tax Division Trial Attorney Lauren Castaldi, who are prosecuting the case.

Additional information about the Tax Division and its enforcement efforts may be found on the division’s website.