Woman Indicted for Conspiracy to File False Tax Returns and Making False Statements to a Federal Agent

A woman was arrested on Friday, October 26, 2018, following an indictment for conspiracy to defraud the United States by filing false tax returns and making false statements to a federal agent, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and United States Attorney Byung J. Pak for the Northern District of Georgia. 

According to the indictment, between approximately 2011 and 2014, Tiffany Lewis and her co-conspirators fraudulently obtained the payment of income tax refunds by filing false tax returns.  After directing the tax refunds into bank accounts they opened and controlled, Lewis and her co-conspirators used checks and debit cards to withdraw cash or to pay for personal items.  Later, when interviewed by an Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation special agent, Lewis lied about her purported purchase of a tax return preparation business.      

If convicted, Lewis faces a maximum of 5 years in prison for the conspiracy charge, and 5 years in prison for the false statements charge.  She also faces a period of supervised release, restitution, and monetary penalties. One of Lewis’s co-conspirators, Renault Shinall, was sentenced in July 2018 to 37 months’ imprisonment after pleading guilty to his part in the conspiracy.

An indictment merely alleges that crimes have been committed.  The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. 

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman and U.S. Attorney Pak thanked special agents of IRS Criminal Investigation, who conducted the investigation, and Tax Division Trial Attorneys David Zisserson and Sean Beaty, as well as Assistant United States Attorney Jeffrey A. Brown, who are prosecuting the case.

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