VIRGINIA BEACH — A former manager of a tax service here was sentenced Monday to nearly five years in prison for her role in a conspiracy to prepare false tax returns for her customers.
According to court documents, Markita D. Simon, 32, of Rocky Mount, North Carolina was the manager of a now-closed, Virginia Beach-based Express Tax Preparation Services.
From December 2014 to February 2016, Simon was responsible for using false information in her customers’ tax returns in order to generate a higher refund amount, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
In some cases, she falsely stated that the customer had dependent children so that the customer would qualify for beneficial tax credits, prosecutors said.
She also filed returns using the names and Social Security numbers of other people without their knowledge. The court found that she was responsible for a tax loss of approximately $203,000.
