Florida woman sentenced to prison for filing false refund claims

Date: Oct. 22, 2024

Contact: [email protected]

MIAMI - A Florida woman was sentenced today to one year and one day in prison, one year of supervised release, and ordered to pay approximately $485,290.03 in restitution to the United States for filing false tax returns with the IRS to obtain tax refunds.

According to court documents and statements made in court, between 2018 and 2020, Yolanda Dewar filed four false tax returns seeking a total of almost $2 million in tax refunds from the IRS on behalf of a trust she created. These returns falsely reported that the trust had earned significant income, made payments to the IRS, and had federal income taxes withheld on its behalf. Dewar continued filing false returns even after the IRS notified her that her claims were frivolous and had no basis in law. In total, the IRS issued nearly $500,000 to the trust in response to Dewar's false claims. Dewar used a portion of the funds to purchase a car for a family member, get plastic surgery and renovate her home.

U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe for the Southern District of Florida and Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department's Tax Division made the announcement.

IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) investigated the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Deric Zacca for the Southern District of Florida and Trial Attorneys Melissa S. Siskind and Kavitha Bondada of the Justice Department's Tax Division prosecuted the case.

IRS-CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.