Frances Jo Mehner, 71, of Rio Rancho, N.M., has been sentenced to a term of imprisonment after being caught in a $958 million dollar tax refund scam. The defendant was handed down a 207-day sentence, which she had already served, along with a year of supervised release.
Mehner’s obstructionist tactics towards the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) have not gone unnoticed, as the federal judge has imposed stringent conditions during her supervised release. These include mandatory filing of accurate and timely tax returns, restricted communication with the IRS through a licensed attorney only, and an outright ban on filing liens against any employee of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, or the IRS.
The sentence comes after Mehner was indicted on December 16, 2014, for three counts related to her fraudulent activities. Counts one and two involved filing false claims for federal tax refunds, totaling over $1.2 billion in January 2010. Count three charged her with attempting to obstruct the administration of federal tax laws through false returns filed between 1996 and 2008.
In a guilty plea entered on March 13, 2017, Mehner admitted to filing a claim for a refund she knew was not entitled to, amounting to $958,163,765.00. This fraudulent act was committed through the mailing of a U.S. Individual Income Tax Return Form 1040 for the year 2006.
This case was investigated by the Albuquerque offices of IRS Criminal Investigation and the FBI, and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sean J. Sullivan, Brandon Fyffe, and Margaret M. Vierbuchen.
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Key Facts
- State: New Mexico
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: Official Source ↗
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