14 DAY TRIAL // The US Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) have revealed that an Alabama woman has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for her role in two separate tax fraud schemes. In addition to the jail time, she will also have to pay almost $1.3 million (1 million EUR) in restitution.
In October 2012, Antoinette Djonret pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy and aggravated identity theft in the first case, and filing false tax returns in the second.
Authorities say the woman and her co-conspirators filed over 1,000 false tax returns between October 2009 and April 2012.
Djonret, who was apparently the mastermind of the scheme, stole identities from various places, including Alabama state databases. She recruited several individuals to help her launder the refund money.
Before starting the identity theft scheme, Djonret worked at a tax return preparation company. There, she helped the business’ customers prepare false tax returns.