On November 5, 2012, Gezelle Helena Amaechi, of Buckeye, was sentenced to 42 months of imprisonment for her participation in a tax fraud scheme that relied on stolen identities of disabled individuals. Amaechi pleaded guilty on August 20, 2012 to conspiracy to commit the crimes of false claims, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft. Amaechi was also ordered to pay $386,938.13 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service.
According to court documents, Amaechi and others used the stolen identities to claim more than $1,000,000 in bogus tax returns from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), resulting in the IRS paying out more than $300,000 in false refunds.
Amaechi and her associates took several sophisticated steps to conceal their misconduct, including filing the tax returns electronically using their neighbors’ unsecured wireless networks, directing the refunds to prepaid debit card accounts they had obtained under false identities, and recruiting friends and associates to receive the prepaid debit cards by mail at various addresses. Amaechi’s co-defendants were previously sentenced for their roles in the offense.
Shelton Tanner was sentenced on February 6, 2012 to 60 months of imprisonment and Latricia Williams was sentenced on September 21, 2012 to 36 months of imprisonment. The investigation in this case was conducted by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation and the Buckeye Police Department.