Khristine N. Harper, Tax Fraud, Florida 2024

A 42-year-old woman from Pensacola has been sentenced to two years in federal prison for preparing false tax returns and identity theft, as announced by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Florida.

Khristine N. Harper, a former tax preparer, was found guilty of twenty counts of aiding and assisting the preparation of false tax returns and one count of identity theft. The crimes occurred between 2018 and 2024.

Harper, who operated a tax preparation business called Kings Tax Service, would prepare and file fraudulent income tax returns for her clients by listing false amounts for various deductions, credits, and other items that were never provided to her by those clients.

When Harper learned that the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation was investigating her in July 2023, she changed the name of her business to Echelon Tax and obtained a Preparer Tax Identification Number (PTIN) in another person's name without permission. She then used this PTIN to file her clients' 2023 returns.

Harper was ordered to pay $284,490 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service as a condition of a two-year term of supervised release to follow her prison sentence. She was also ordered to pay $132,809.74 in statutorily mandated costs of prosecution and a $2,100 special monetary assessment.

The sentence was the result of a joint investigation by the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Alicia H. Forbes.

“Tax return preparers who deliberately file fraudulent returns are committing serious federal crimes with every submission,” said IRS Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge Ron Loecker of the Florida Field Office. “IRS-CI will relentlessly pursue dishonest preparers to protect taxpayers and uphold the integrity of the tax system. Those who break the law will be held accountable—period.”

Harper's sentencing marks the end of a long investigation into her tax preparation business. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Florida is committed to aggressively prosecuting individuals who commit tax-related crimes and protecting the integrity of the tax system.

The United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Florida is one of 94 offices that serve as the nation's principal litigators under the direction of the Attorney General. To access public court documents online, please visit the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida website. For more information about the United States Attorney's Office, Northern District of Florida, visit http://www.justice.gov/usao/fln/index.html.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndfl/pr/pensacola-woman-sentenced-federal-prison-preparing-false-tax-returns-and-identity