Tax Scammer Tanya Nichols Convicted in Illinois

Tanya Nichols, 33, of St. Louis, MO, has been found guilty of orchestrating a sophisticated tax refund scheme that bilked the IRS out of thousands of dollars.

Nichols, along with her half-brother Justin Durley, was indicted by a federal grand jury in August 2014 for their roles in the scam. Nichols pleaded guilty on March 5, 2015, in US District Court, admitting to conspiracy to obstruct or impair the Internal Revenue Service.

The charges against Nichols included three counts of mail fraud and one count of theft of government property, while Durley faced theft of government property charges alone. The trial for Durley is set for May 11, 2015.

Nichols’s scheme was an elaborate ploy to generate false ‘refundable tax credits’ through fraudulent income tax returns. She promised tax filers in St. Louis and East St. Louis, IL, that they would receive ‘free money,’ enticing them with the promise of IRS refunds for tax credits they were not eligible for.

The indictment detailed how Nichols falsified income, employment, dependents, and other information to fraudulently generate large refundable tax credits. The scheme not only defrauded the IRS but also exploited low-income individuals who could have received legitimate tax benefits had they used legal means.

Nichols’s sentence is expected to be handed down on June 12, 2015, with potential penalties of up to 25 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. The investigation was led by the IRS Criminal Investigations unit, with prosecution handled by Assistant United States Attorneys Steven D. Weinhoeft and Norman R. Smith.