A Joplin woman has admitted to running a five-year tax fraud scheme that flooded her bank account with at least $138,135 in stolen refunds. Tara F. Garrett, 36, pleaded guilty today in federal court to making a false claim upon the government, copping to a string of phony tax filings stretching from February 2010 to April 15, 2015.
Garrett waived indictment and entered her plea before U.S. Magistrate Judge David P. Rush, admitting she used Turbo Tax software on her personal computer to file at least 20 fraudulent federal income tax returns. Each return contained fabricated wage and income data, rigged to inflate the earned income credit—and, by extension, the refund amount.
The scam wasn’t just for herself. Garrett filed returns on behalf of others, funneling refunds into her own bank account or splitting the deposits with co-conspirators. But one thing remained consistent: she kept a large cut of every payout as payment for her illicit services, turning the IRS into her personal slush fund.
The total haul? At least $138,135 in false refunds claimed through the scheme. Investigators say the fraud was systematic, precise, and sustained over half a decade—long enough to fly under the radar until federal auditors caught the pattern of suspicious claims tied to a single Joplin address.
Now, Garrett faces up to five years in federal prison without parole. While the sentence is not guaranteed—final judgment will come after a presentence investigation by the U.S. Probation Office—the writing is on the wall: federal prosecutors don’t take kindly to stealing from the government’s coffers.
The case was investigated by IRS-Criminal Investigation, the FBI, and the Joplin, Mo., Police Department, and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Casey Clark and Steven Mohlhenrich. A sentencing date will be set once the presentence report is finalized.
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Key Facts
- State: Missouri
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: Official Source ↗
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