Source: Office of United States Attorneys
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – A Nixa, Mo., woman pleaded guilty in federal court today to making false and fictitious claims against the United States and wire fraud.
Tina Louis Yager, 66, waived her right to a grand jury and pleaded guilty before U.S. Chief Magistrate Judge Willie Epps, Jr., to a federal information charging her with one count of wire fraud and one count of making false, fictitious and fraudulent claims against the United States.
Yager, a tax preparer, utilized information from her clients to present false tax return documents to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from November 2023 through March of 2024.
According to the plea agreement, Yager was entrusted with the personal information of her clients. Yager submitted tax return documents to the IRS in the name of her clients without their knowledge or approval. Yager also included unapproved tax deductions on tax return documents for her clients to fraudulently inflate her clients tax returns and then pocketed these falsely obtained monies. Yager would have debit cards issued that contained her clients tax return monies. Yager would then embezzle those monies and spent it for her personal benefit. The intended losses amounted to $48,481.00, but Yager was able to embezzle only $16,850.00 of those monies for her personal use. As part of her plea agreement, Yager must pay restitution of at least $14,447.00 to the IRS, the exact amount will be determined at her sentencing hearing and agreed to the Court entering a forfeiture money judgment of $16,850.00.
Under federal statutes, Yager is subject to a sentence of up to 25 years in federal prison without parole. The maximum statutory sentence is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes, as the sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the court based on the advisory sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Carney. It was investigated by the IRS – Criminal Investigation.