William J. Edwards, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, today announced that Federal District Judge Solomon Oliver sentenced RaShawn McGee, also known as Shawn Williams, of Cleveland, Ohio, to five (5) years of probation with intermittent confinement for six (6) months. District Judge Oliver also ordered McGee to pay restitution to the Internal Revenue Service of $138,563.00. McGee previously entered a plea of guilty to an Indictment setting forth thirty-nine (39) counts of willfully aiding or assisting in the preparation of fraudulent tax returns and six (6) counts of making false statements to the United States related to tax returns. McGee later entered a plea of guilty to a Supplemental Information describing two (2) counts of bankruptcy fraud.

McGee operated a tax preparation business from her residence in Cleveland, Ohio known as the Williams Tax Filing Center in Cleveland, Ohio where she prepared tax returns for individuals. With the exception of one Count, McGee pled guilty to willfully aiding or assisting in the preparation of fraudulent tax returns that there were one or more false entries for the client’s income, deductions, or credits, including: (a) reporting falsely-inflated amounts of wages and/or business income, in order to falsely increase a claimed earned income credit, (b) claiming false or falsely-inflated Schedule A itemized deductions; (c) claiming false or falsely-inflated Schedule C business expense deductions; (d) claiming false education tax credits, and/or
(e) claiming false deductions for purported IRA contributions. As to the charges asserting false statements to the United States, McGee filed a series of false income tax returns, in which she made claims for income tax refunds that were false, fraudulent, and fictitious using variations of her name, false social security numbers and fictitious information and attachments.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Robert J. Patton, following an investigation by the Cleveland Office of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation.