Kim Brown of Augusta, Georgia, is awaiting sentencing after admitting to charges of tax fraud. She pled guilty to two counts of Aiding and Assisting in the Preparation and Filing of False Income Tax Returns, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia Tara M. Lyons confirmed. Each count could land Brown, 40, behind bars for up to three years.
Per the details shared in the plea agreement, Brown operated unlawfully from her Georgia home. She violated IRS rules by not identifying herself as a paid preparer on tax returns she filed on behalf of her clients, hence being dubbed a "ghost" preparer. In addition to this, she went further astray by inflating her clients' income to wrongly qualify them for tax credits, and inventing deductions to maximize their refunds, all the while skimming a percentage of these inflated refunds as her fee, according to a statement obtained by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia.
Brown's shadowy operation led to the filing of 22 false tax returns, which duped the U.S. Treasury out of $541,912, the Department of Justice reports. Adding to the deceit, Brown did not provide copies of the tax returns to her clients nor did she review the fabricated filings with them prior to electronic submission to the IRS.
IRS Criminal Investigation led the probe into Brown's activities, and Assistant U.S. Attorney George J.C. Jacobs, III is handling the prosecution. An update on Brown's sentencing will follow once the court schedules a date, the scope of restitution, and any additional penalties that may accompany her prison time.
