An Indiana tax preparer has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for filing 382 falsified federal tax returns on behalf of clients.
Federal prosecutors said those clients were unaware that Christina Moles, now 50, had falsified their returns, which were filed between 2015 and 2021.
Moles was sentenced in recent days by Judge James R. Sweeney II in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis. She had pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aiding and assisting the making of a false federal income tax return.
Moles - also known as Tina Lashley, according to a news release issued by the U.S. Department of Justice - was also ordered to pay $567,010 in restitution to the government. She will be on supervised release for three years after she completes her prison term.
Federal prosecutors said Moles advertised that her business "would guarantee large refunds." Many of Moles' customers received between $5,000 and $10,000 in refunds despite having modest incomes.
They said Moles - formerly of Muncie, Ind. - would falsely claim her clients "incurred educational expenses to either Ivy Tech or Penn Foster online college," resulting in undeserved tax credits.
"Due to the defendant's deceit, the United States lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in unjustified refunds," John E. Childress, acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, said in the release. "Even more troubling, her unsuspecting customers faced the threat of audits and the repayment of thousands of dollars they wrongly received, all because they trusted her business practices."
Ramsey Covington, an acting special agent in IRS criminal investigators, said Moles' "deceit didn't just cheat the system, it undermined a benefit intended to help families invest in their futures."
Moles was indicted by a U.S, District Court grand jury in May 2024.
In a sentencing memo, Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Eakman suggested Moles be sentenced to 30 months in prison to "send a message to other potential tax cheats that imprisonment is a reality for individuals who violate the internal revenue laws."
Douglas Walker is a news reporter at The Star Press. Contact him at 765-213-5851 or at dwalker@muncie.gannett.com.