Sentence handed down in tax fraud case

April 21, 2013

A Casa Grande woman has been sentenced to two and a half years in federal prison for tax fraud. In addition to the prison time, a federal judge sentenced 30-year old Shaneika Earline Sims to three years of supervised release. She also has to pay back more than $400,000 in restitution. Sims admitted that she and others filed fake tax returns for close to two years – those returns claimed refunds they shouldn’t have gotten. In a release, the U.S. Attorney for Arizona’s office says Sims and the others filed at least 150 fake federal income tax returns, claiming almost $550,000 in unjustified refunds. Some of the people in whose names the returns were filed were inmates in state and local detention centers. Sims had pleaded guilty in November to conspiracy to defraud the government through false claims.