Former IRS Service Center Employee Pleads Guilty to Filing Hundreds of False Tax Returns

BOSTON – A former employee of the IRS Service Center in Andover pleaded guilty today to aiding and assisting the preparation and filing of at least 70 false tax returns for herself and other individuals.

Jennifer Beth True, 44, of Lawrence, pleaded guilty to four counts of aiding and assisting the filing of a false tax return and four counts of filing a fraudulent tax return by an employee of the United States. U.S. District Court Judge Leo T. Sorokin scheduled sentencing for Jan. 6, 2021. In January 2020, True was arrested and charged by criminal complaint.

True was employed by the Internal Revenue Service for over 22 years. In her position as a Lead Contact Representative, she assisted team members in responding to difficult and complex taxpayer inquiries. Throughout her employment, True was trained in tax law, ethics, information protection and disclosure, privacy, identity theft and identity protection.

True electronically filed over 500 tax returns for herself and other taxpayers between 2012 and 2018, in violation of IRS rules prohibiting employees from “Engaging in the preparation of tax returns for compensation, gift, or favor.” True admitted that between approximately February 2012 and April 2018, she prepared or assisted in preparing and filing of at least 70 IRS Forms 1040 – U.S. Individual Income Tax Returns – for herself and other taxpayers that True knew contained materially false items such as false individual retirement account deductions, false medical expenses, false and inflated unreimbursed business expenses and/or false tax preparation fees. Some returns also included false child and dependent care credits. As a result of the false deductions claimed on the returns, the tax obligations of True and those individuals whose false returns she prepared was reduced.

The charge of aiding and assisting the filing of a false tax return provides for a sentence of up to three years in prison, three years of supervised release, a fine of $250,000 and restitution. The charge of filing a fraudulent tax return by an employee of the United States provides for a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release, a fine of $250,000 and restitution. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling; William Kalb, Special Agent in Charge of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, New York Field; and Joleen Simpson, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation in Boston made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristina E. Barclay of Lelling’s Public Corruption Unit is prosecuting the case.