On October 10, 2017, it was announced that a woman from Antioch, Tennessee had been convicted by a federal grand jury in Nashville, Tennessee. The jury found Monique Ellis guilty of eight counts of wire fraud and eight counts of aggravated identity theft. The indictment and trial evidence showed the Ellis used stolen identities to file tax returns with the IRS in January and February of 2012.
Some of the identities belonged to prisoners held by the Alabama Department of Corrections. Ellis instructed the IRS to deposit the refunds into bank accounts that she controlled. In total, the defendant’s actions caused a tax loss of $121,851.10.
Ellis is now scheduled to be sentenced on January 9, 2018. At the sentencing, Ellis will face a statutory maximum of 20 years in prison for each wire fraud count and a mandatory two-year sentence for each aggravated identity theft count. She will also face a period of supervised release and restitution.
