Tomeki L. Tyson, Tax Return Fraud, WI 2017

Twenty-one counts of tax theft. That’s the federal hammer now swinging at Tomeki L. Tyson, 45, former resident of Racine, Wisconsin, now of North Las Vegas, Nevada. Indicted January 10, 2017, by a Milwaukee federal grand jury, Tyson stands accused of weaponizing fake tax returns to loot the U.S. Treasury across a six-year crime spree.

The indictment alleges Tyson filed over 250 fraudulent federal income tax returns between January 2009 and February 2015, using real people’s names to claim false refunds. These weren’t honest mistakes—they were engineered lies. Bogus employment records, invented income figures, and phantom tax withholding details formed the backbone of a calculated scam aimed squarely at the Internal Revenue Service.

Each of the 21 counts in the indictment carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The charges are filed under Title 18, United States Code, Section 287—making a false claim against the government. Though only 21 counts are detailed in the indictment, prosecutors say the broader scheme involved more than a quarter-ton of paper fraud dumped into the IRS system.

“IRS Criminal Investigation is committed to rigorously pursuing thieves who steal from American taxpayers,” said Special Agent in Charge Shea Jones of the St. Paul Field Office. “Today’s indictment should serve as a warning to thieves that we, along with our law enforcement partners and the United States Attorney’s Office, will pursue those criminals and bring them to justice.”

The case was investigated by IRS Criminal Investigations and is now in the hands of Assistant United States Attorney Stephen A. Ingraham, who will lead the prosecution. The wheels of federal justice have been set in motion, but no trial date has been announced.

The public is reminded that an indictment is not evidence of guilt. Tomeki L. Tyson is presumed innocent until the government proves her guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. But in the grim arithmetic of federal fraud, 250 fake returns leave a trail even the cleverest crook can’t hide.