The mastermind of a decade-long tax- and debt-relief rip-off that resulted in $325 million in bogus tax-refund claims has been sentenced to eight years and 4 months in jail.
Yolonda Denise Thompson and her husband, Albert Upshur, have been convicted in federal courtroom in Philadelphia final yr of submitting dozens of false tax-refund claims on behalf of people that had employed the couple to offer debt-relief providers. Upshur was sentenced to seven years in December.
Thompson’s sentencing brings to an in depth a greater than decade-long Internal Revenue Service investigation into the couple, who’re followers of the sovereign citizen motion, which denies the legitimacy of the U.S. authorities. Its adherents usually refuse to pay taxes and gum up the authorized system via obstructive courtroom filings.
Thompson additionally glided by the identify Qhama Al, and Upshur was also referred to as Kelinde Jaha, prosecutors mentioned.
Despite receiving a number of notices from the IRS that they have been beneath investigation, the pair continued to file false claims, prosecutors mentioned, with Thompson “constantly evolving her methodology to find one that worked.”
“ ‘It is clear from the manner in which Mr. Upshur conducted himself during pre-trial hearings and the non-jury trial that he has significant mental issues.’”
The pair represented themselves at trial and couldn’t instantly be reached for remark, as they’re each incarcerated. A lawyer appointed by the courtroom to help Thompson in her protection didn’t instantly reply to a message looking for remark. Thomas Dreyer, a lawyer equally appointed to help Upshur mentioned he provided “no real legal argument,” at trial, as an alternative citing bible passages and civil legislation statutes that have been deemed inadmissible in a prison case.
Prosecutors mentioned Thompson and Upshur’s rip-off dates again to no less than 2009, when the couple, who have been residing in Philadelphia, would supply folks dealing with bankruptcies and foreclosures assist getting their money owed erased in return for a charge of $500.
The couple would then checklist their prospects as workers of an entity they created known as the Thompson Trust. The pair filed belief tax paperwork itemizing extreme tax withholdings on behalf of the shoppers, then filed claims for large tax refunds, prosecutors mentioned.
If any refund was issued, Thompson and Upshur mentioned they’d maintain 20% of the cash, in line with courtroom papers.
Virtually all of the claims have been in the end rejected, however one — for $1.5 million on behalf of a shopper in Michigan — slipped via in 2011, in line with courtroom paperwork. When the person tried to deposit the examine at his financial institution, workers there contacted tax authorities to confirm that it was real, and the fee was blocked. The episode triggered an investigation by the IRS that will take years to conclude.
After receiving quite a few notices from the IRS that they have been beneath investigation and being advised to stop submitting fraudulent claims, the couple switched techniques, submitting large overpayments for his or her shoppers drawn from closed financial institution accounts in hopes that the overpayment would set off an computerized refund examine, prosecutors mentioned. That ploy was additionally unsuccessful.
Thompson and Upshur have been lastly charged in 2018, however the case was considerably delayed by the repeated submitting of obstructive motions by the defendants, by a court-ordered mental-health examination of Upshur to find out his competency to face trial and by the pandemic, prosecutors mentioned.
Dreyer wrote in a sentencing memo that Upshur had refused to ever talk with him after he was assigned the case in 2018.
“It is clear from the manner in which Mr. Upshur conducted himself during pre-trial hearings and the non-jury trial that he has significant mental issues,” Dreyer wrote.
In a letter to the choose looking for to have her conviction thrown out, Thompson argued that the IRS and the U.S. authorities had no authorized standing within the case and due to this fact have been unable to deliver swimsuit in opposition to her.
Source web site: www.marketwatch.com
