Yolanda Dewar, a Florida woman, has been handed a prison sentence of one year and a day after being convicted for filing fraudulent tax returns. This scheme netted her nearly half a million dollars in illegal tax refunds from the IRS, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office
Court documents revealed that between 2018 and 2020, Dewar filed four false tax returns for a trust she created, claiming nearly $2 million in refunds based on fake income and nonexistent tax payments. Despite the IRS labeling her filings as frivolous, Dewar continued her attempts. As a result, the IRS mistakenly issued about $500,000 to the trust before the fraud was discovered.
Dewar used the illegal funds for various personal expenses, including buying a vehicle for a relative, funding her plastic surgery, and renovating her home. Markenzy Lapointe, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg from the Justice Department’s Tax Division announced the case's outcome after an IRS criminal investigation.
In addition to her prison sentence, Dewar has been given one year of supervised release and ordered to pay approximately $485,290.03 in restitution to the U.S. government. Case details can be found on the District Court for the Southern District of Florida's website or through their PACER service under case number 24-cr-60051.
