On June 1st, Rebecca Cyphers entered a plea of guilty to filing an incorrect 2013 amended income tax return with the IRS and getting a $240,000 refund that she was not entitled to.
According to court documents and testimony, 65-year-old Winter Springs resident Cyphers participated in and helped facilitate a large-scale tax fraud scheme in which people prepared and assisted with the filing of tax returns for scheme participants, including Cyphers. The participants made up evidence that huge sums of income tax had been withheld from them by banks and other financial entities.
Records eventually revealed that the aforementioned financial institutions had neither paid any money to the participants in the scheme or deducted any taxes from them.
Cyphers acknowledged submitting an incorrect amended tax return and getting a refund of almost $240,000. Furthermore, she admitted to moving money into a trust and taking a sizable cash withdrawal from the refund deposit in order to thwart the IRS’s attempts to reclaim the money.
Additionally, Cyphers admitted to recruiting participants and aiding in the promotion of the tax fraud scheme.
Iran Backstrom, the fraud scheme’s mastermind, was given a prison term of more than eight years in March. Second in command to Backstrom, Mehef Bey, received an eleven-year prison term. Aaron Aqueron, a third participant in the conspiracy, received a 51-month prison term for soliciting clients and giving information to a second conspirator for use in preparing bogus tax returns.
According to court documents, Cyphers will be sentenced on August 24 and might receive a maximum sentence of three years in jail. She must also pay reparations, pay fines, and serve a period of supervised release. After taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other legal considerations, a federal district court judge will decide on any sentence.
