KC Woman Sentenced for $433,000 Tax Fraud Scheme

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Kansas City, Mo., woman was sentenced in federal court today for her role in a fraudulent tax return scheme that claimed $433,365 in fraudulent income tax refunds.

Lashan Brown, 41, of Kansas City, Mo., was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Beth Phillips to one year and one day in federal prison without parole. The court also ordered Brown to pay $120,172 in restitution.

On Oct. 19, 2015, Brown pleaded guilty before to her role in a conspiracy to defraud the government. Brown admitted that she and several co-defendants conspired to submit false claims for income tax refunds from January 2009 to February 2012.

The tax refund scheme involved the creation of false and fraudulent W-2 forms that reported fictitious employer information, fictitious income, and fictitious income tax withholdings. Conspirators solicited friends and acquaintances to file their tax returns using false W-2 information. These “taxpayers” had little to no legitimate income and would not otherwise have to file tax returns.

The tax refund scheme involved claims against the United States in the approximate amount of $433,365, and resulted in an actual loss of at least $329,000.

Brown was recruited to file fraudulent tax returns from her home computer in 2010 and 2011. Brown’s portion of the tax refund scheme involved 33 fraudulent refund filings during this time period. Regarding these 33 filings, a total of $204,849 in refunds were claimed, which resulted in $120,172 in actual tax loss (money paid to the defendants and filers based on their false claims).

Co-defendant Marquita R. Murray, 38, of Kansas City, pleaded guilty to her role in the conspiracy and to making false claims and awaits sentencing. Murray provided tax filers with the false W-2 forms, transported tax filers to legitimate tax preparers to electronically file the fraudulent tax returns and transported tax filers to banks and check cashing businesses to obtain cash from the tax returns. Murray also assisted co-conspirators in electronically filing others’ false returns from their home computers.

Co-defendant Mika Francis, 41, of Lee’s Summit, Mo., also pleaded guilty and awaits sentencing.

Co-defendant Demichael A. Johnson, 37, of Kansas City, Mo., was sentenced to two years in federal prison without parole, to be served consecutively to the seven-year sentence Johnson is currently serving in federal prison for drug trafficking. The court also ordered Johnson to pay $67,281 in restitution to the government.

This case is being prosecuted by Senior Litigation Counsel Gregg Coonrod. It was investigated by IRS-Criminal Investigation.