Two Sacramento residents plead guilty to false income tax return scheme

Date: Oct. 29, 2023

Contact: [email protected]

SACRAMENTO - Dominic Davis, and Sharitia Wright, both of Sacramento, pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to file false claims with the IRS, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.

According to court documents, between March 2019 and April 2022, Davis and Wright caused at least nine fraudulent income tax returns to be filed with the IRS claiming more than $2 million of income tax refunds.

The returns were filed in the names of Davis, Wright, and family members. The returns listed wages that the taxpayers had not earned and often listed the taxpayers' employer as one of the various LLCs created by Davis, Wright, and their family members. Many of the returns also falsely claimed charitable contributions that were not actually made. Davis prepared and filed the false tax returns. Wright provided him information and contacted the IRS to check on the status of the refunds claimed in the false tax returns.

Davis and Wright agreed to pay restitution for the fraudulent income tax refunds that they received.

This case is the product of an investigation by IRS Criminal Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas M. Fogg is prosecuting the case.

Davis and Wright are scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Dale A. Drozd on Feb. 3, 2025. Each faces a maximum statutory penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The actual sentences, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables.

IRS-CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.