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Illinois woman sentenced for filing $160K in false tax returns

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — An Illinois woman convicted of filing 36 fraudulent tax returns and stealing the refunds was sentenced to 14 months in federal prison Friday, according to court records.

Toniece King, 37, of Evanston, pleaded guilty Friday to one count of theft of government property and one count of a false claim for refund of taxes, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release.

She was sentenced in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, by U.S. District Court Judge C.J. Williams, according to the release. She was also ordered to pay $65,481 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service.

According to prosecutors, King filed 36 fraudulent returns using her own name and the identities of other people, including their Social Security numbers, the Des Moines Register reported. The returns were filed from January 2015 to January 2017 and claimed more than $160,000 in refunds, according to the Department of Justice.

More than $65,000 was paid to King, with some of the refunds on prepaid debit cards that were found in her possession in March 2016, the DOJ release stated.

King lived in Iowa for at least part of the time she filed the false returns, IRS Special Agent Liliana Nin told the Register in an email.

“She moved out of the state before she was indicted but the bulk of the criminal activity occurred while she was in Iowa,” Nin said.

As part of her sentence, King must serve a three-year term of supervised release after the prison term, according to the DOJ release

King was released on the bond previously set and will surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on a date yet to be set, the Register reported.