ATHENS, Ga. — An Athens woman who admitted to filing more than $3.5 million in fraudulent tax returns has been sentenced to prison.
Jessica Crawford, 34, was sentenced to serve eight years in prison followed by five years of supervised release. She pleaded guilty to wire fraud and assisting in preparing and presenting false income tax returns in November.
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Prosecutors say Crawford, a tax preparer, was part of a multi-state COVID-19 unemployment benefit scheme and received a portion of the money.
They say she filed for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance benefits for people who created fake businesses or submitted false information. Investigators uncovered text messages between Crawford and those people.
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In 2022, an undercover agent went to Crawford’s tax preparation business. They say she asked the agent if he did anything on the side and said if he did that expenses could be deducted. He told her that he mows his aunt’s lawn sometimes.
Without asking for income or expense amounts, they say Crawford created a landscaping business for the agent and filed for a loss of $19,373 and applied other credits. Ultimately, the tax return was issued a fraudulent federal income tax return of $12,359.
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