Tampa Woman Sentenced To More Than 6 Years In Prison For Tax Fraud

Tampa, Florida – U.S. District Judge Elizabeth A. Kovachevich today sentenced Tiki Simone Dennis to six years and two months in federal prison for tax fraud and aggravated identity theft.  The court also ordered Dennis to pay $222,767.00 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service.  As part of her sentence, the court also entered a money judgment in the amount of $222,767.00, which constitutes the proceeds from the tax fraud.  Dennis pleaded guilty on January13, 2014.

According to court documents, from an unknown date prior to January 6, 2011, through and including May 18, 2011, Dennis used stolen identities to electronically file more than 116 fraudulent federal income tax returns in order to obtain refunds to which she was not entitled.  The value of the refunds that would have resulted from 116 of the returns fraudulently filed by Dennis totaled approximately $364,113.  Although some of these returns were rejected by the IRS, 67 of them were accepted.  The IRS paid out approximately $176,984 in tax refunds to debit cards under Dennis’s control.  In addition, Dennis provided information to a co-conspirator who filed an additional 36 2010 tax returns requesting approximately $65,659.  IRS accepted 25 of these returns and paid out $45,783 in tax refunds to debit cards under the control of Dennis. Altogether, the total number of fraudulent 2010 federal income tax returns that Dennis is responsible for filing or having filed is more than 152, requesting at least $429,772 in refunds.  The total amount paid out on those requests to debit cards controlled by Dennis was at least $222,767.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney and Senior Litigation Counsel, Donald L. Hansen.