Doreen Hendrickson, Tax Evasion, Michigan 2014

A Commerce Township woman has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for violating a federal court order related to her tax obligations.

Doreen Hendrickson, 67, was sentenced on May 22, 2026 by U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts for criminal contempt in connection with her failure to file amended tax returns and repay fraudulently obtained refunds to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

According to court documents, in July 2014, Hendrickson was convicted of criminal contempt following a federal jury trial in Detroit. The conviction stemmed from her violation of an injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds of the Eastern District of Michigan in May 2007.

In 2006, the Tax Division sued Hendrickson and her husband, Peter Hendrickson, to recover over $20,000 in income tax refunds that they fraudulently obtained by filing false tax returns. As part of that litigation, Judge Edmunds ordered the Hendricksons to file corrected amended tax returns for 2002 and 2003 that reported all of their income, and to repay their fraudulently obtained refunds to the IRS.

Hendrickson and her husband, Peter Hendrickson, had filed federal income tax returns for the years 2002 and 2003 on which they falsely claimed they earned zero wages. The IRS issued the Hendricksons more than $20,000 in income tax refunds that they were not entitled to receive.

Acting Assistant Attorney General Caroline D. Ciraolo commended special agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation, who investigated the case, and Trial Attorneys Melissa S. Siskind, Jeffrey B. Bender, and Jeffrey A. McLellan of the Tax Division, who are prosecuting the case. Ciraolo also thanked the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of Michigan for their substantial assistance.

Hendrickson will serve 18 months in prison to be followed by one year of supervised release. Her prison sentence will be followed by one year of supervised release. The exact date of her incarceration is not specified in the release.

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