A Poplarville woman was indicted on Oct. 7, in relation to a case that alleges she filed false income tax benefits on returns for clients and herself.
The indictment filed in the United State District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi Southern Division alleges that 50-year-old Emma Jean Raine intentionally devised a scheme to defraud the government through fraudulent bankruptcy petitions three times from October 2009 to January 2010.
Counts four through 32 in the indictment dealt with her advisement and preparation of fraudulent or misrepresented tax returns between January 2009 to January of 2012 that entailed deductions the taxpayers were not entitled. Deductions listed in the indictment included education credits, expenses or other deductions resulting in benefit payouts ranging from $3,000 to $7,658.
The indictment also lists counts 33 and 34 that refer to her filing a tax return for herself in 2010 and 2012 knowingly understating her own income from the tax preparation business.
The final count listed on the indictment states Raine obstructed “the due administration of the internal revenue laws by making false statements to Special Agents of the IRS, operating a fraudulent scheme to file false income tax returns for customers over multiple filing seasons.”
Raine is also alleged to have continued to operate the tax preparation business by using “a different business name and electronic filing number” even though her number had been revoked in April of 2011, the indictment states.