Omaha Woman Jailed for Tax Scam

A 44-year-old woman from Omaha, Nebraska, has been sentenced to prison for her role in a tax fraud scheme.

Latasha Ellis, 44, of Omaha, was sentenced to 6 months’ imprisonment, followed by 3 years of supervised release, by the Honorable Laurie Smith Camp. Ellis was also ordered to pay $280,442 in restitution to the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

Ellis and her co-defendant, Niquisha Taylor, conspired to defraud the United States and the U.S. Treasury by filing false tax returns and claiming phony business losses to inflate their Earned Income Tax Credit claims.

Between January 2012 and December 2014, the pair filed 55 false tax returns, each with fake Schedules C claiming losses that didn’t exist. This scam earned them a total of $280,442 in phony refunds.

Taylor, who previously pleaded guilty, was also sentenced to 3 years of supervised release and 120 hours of community service, and was ordered to pay the same restitution as Ellis, jointly and severally.

The case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigations.

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