West Frankfort woman sentenced to 9 years for tax fraud | Crime

WEST FRANKFORT, IL (KFVS) - U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois Stephen R. Wigginton announced that a West Frankfort woman was sentenced Friday to nine years in prison for tax fraud.

Wigginton says Jessica N. Childers, 38, was sentenced for submitting false income tax returns to the Internal Revenue Service between 2008 and 2010 in which she fraudulently claimed entitlement to $1,532, 184 in refunds. According to Wigginton, she actually received $988,614.34.

On August 11, 2011 Wigginton says Childers pleaded guilty to a three count information charging her with conspiracy to submit false, fictitious and fraudulent claims to the U.S., receipt of money stolen from the U.S. and aggravated identity theft.

According to Wigginton, evidence in support of the guilty pleas and sentence showed that in January 2008, Childers began electronically submitting false income tax returns to the IRS using the names, dates of birth and social security numbers of real people who were deceased. Wigginton says between January 2008 and March 2010, Childers submitted 572 such false returns claiming over $1.5 million in fraudulent refunds. After discovering the scam, federal authorities were able to seize $192,512.55 from her bank accounts.

In addition to the nine year prison sentence, Childers was ordered to pay $806,101.79 in restitution to the U.S. Treasury, a special assessment of $300 was placed on a term of three years supervised release to follow her incarceration.

Under federal law, Wigginton says parole has been abolished meaning Childers will be required to serve a minimum of 85 percent of her 108 month sentence.

Childers' husband, David A. Childers, 35, also pleaded guilty to conspiring to submit false claims to the U.S. and receiving money stolen from the U.S. His sentencing is set for Feb. 1, 2012 at 10 a.m. at the U.S. District Courthouse in Benton.

The investigation was conducted by the Criminal Investigation Division of the IRS and FBI.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney James M. Cutchin.

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