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Torise Baker, age 39, of Bridgeport, was sentenced on Tuesday, Aug. 2, to three months in prison followed by a year of supervised release, according to Vanessa Roberts Avery, United States attorney for the District of Connecticut.
She pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and assisting in the preparation and presentation of false and fraudulent income tax returns on March 21, Avery said.
According to the announcement, Baker was also ordered to pay $112,956 in restitution to the IRS, an amount that may be reduced as her clients resolve their tax liabilities with the IRS.
For the 2014 through 2016 tax years, she prepared about 3,600 federal tax returns for clients through 101 Things 2 Do, LLC, a business she operated in Bridgeport, Avery said.
Avery said many of the tax returns claimed false deductions, such as charitable contributions and tax preparation fees.
Baker met with an undercover federal agent who was pretending to be a customer in April of 2016, and the agent told Baker they did not make any gifts to charity and offered no information about any valid deductions, the US Attorney's Office reported.
On the tax return Baker filed for the undercover agent, she included $5,520 in deductions for charitable gifts, $2,105 for parking fees, tolls, and transportation, and $2,660 for uniforms and protective clothing, according to the report.
Avery said Baker also failed to file her own federal tax returns for the 2015 and 2016 tax years.
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