Tallahassee Woman Sentenced to Prison for Tax Fraud

TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA – Lydia Jennine Thomas, 39, of Tallahassee, has been sentenced to 24 months and 1 day in prison for theft of public money and aggravated identity theft.  The sentence was announced by Christopher P. Canova, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida.

During Thomas’s guilty plea on September 12, 2016, Thomas admitted that, between 2012 and 2014, she knowingly prepared and electronically filed fraudulent tax returns.  The personal identifying information that Thomas used on the tax returns came from homeless people, inmates, and Thomas’s family members.  The tax returns typically claimed false income that generated refunds of approximately $6,000.  Thomas would establish recipient addresses, such as abandoned houses and rental properties, for the refunds to arrive in the form of treasury checks and debit cards.

The case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation.  It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Corey J. Smith.

The United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Florida is one of 94 offices that serve as the nation’s principal litigators under the direction of the Attorney General.  To access public court documents online, please visit the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida website.  For more information about the United States Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Florida, visit http://www.justice.gov/usao/fln/index.html.

For more information, contact:
Amy Alexander, Public Information Officer
(850) 216-3854, amy.alexander@usdoj.gov