Mother sentenced Wednesday, Daughter already serving time
AMARILLO, TEXAS -- A woman was sentenced in to 12 months and one day in federal prison after pleading guilty to a count of tax fraud.
Evelyn Jean Wells was sentenced in an Amarillo federal courtroom on Wednesday to the charge of false claims for refund and aiding and abetting.
Wells was also ordered to pay $100,360 in restitution. She must surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on May 14.
According to court documents, Wells along with her daughter, Casandra Letriece Dean, conspired to defraud the U.S. by participating in a scheme to falsely claim income tax refunds from the government. In those claims, the women filed in their own named and caused others to file false federal income tax returns for the tax years 2006, 2007 and 2008, authorities said.
Court documents also showed the mother-daughter duo recruited family and friends to file fraudulent income tax returns using their own names and social security numbers. Wells and Dean, according to court documents, provided false W-2 Forms that contained fabricated employer's names and fabricated amounts of tax withholdings.
Those W-2 Forms were used by commercial tax preparers to prepare false federal income tax returns, court documents indicated.
Dean is currently serving a 21-month federal prison sentence after pleading guilty to the same offense. She was ordered to pay more than $100,000 in restitition.
