PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Federal prosecutors in Portland say a 34-year-old woman accused of filing at least 52 false tax returns and requesting at least $400,000 in fraudulent refunds has been indicted on charges of wire fraud, filing false claims for refunds and one count of aggravated identity theft.
The U.S. attorney’s office said Latisha Simmons of Portland made an initial appearance Friday before a federal magistrate in Phoenix, Ariz. She was released pending a Feb. 20 appearance in federal court in Oregon.
According to the indictment, Simmons obtained the names and Social Security numbers of other people, including a dead person, in order to file false tax returns in their names. Prosecutors say she had the fraudulent refunds deposited onto debit cards and mailed to her own address, addresses she could access or control, or deposited into bank accounts that she could access or control.
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