Crime

Fifth St. Croix Woman Sentenced, Ordered to Pay $37,000 to IRS in Multi-Defendant Tax Fraud Scheme

ST. CROIX — United States Attorney Gretchen C.F. Shappert announced today that Sheba Young, age 44, from St. Croix, was sentenced Tuesday in federal court to ten months of incarceration, followed by three years of supervised release after pleading guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States. She was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $37,086 to the Internal Revenue Service. According to the plea agreement filed with the court, from January 2011 to July 2012, Sheba Young and nine others participated in a scheme to steal money from the United States treasury by fraudulently obtaining federal income tax refunds. The scheme involved the acquisition of personal identifying information of individuals (i.e. name, social security number, and date of birth) used to electronically file falsified tax returns with a designation of refunds to the acquired bank accounts or debit cards. Defendant and her co-conspirators withdrew the deposited refunds, spent them using a debit ca...