Defendant received nearly $500,000 of $2 million sought from IRS

Date: Aug. 7, 2024

Contact: [email protected]

MIAMI - A Florida woman pleaded guilty today to filing false tax returns with the IRS to fraudulently obtain tax refunds.

According to court documents and statements made in court, between 2018 and 2020, surgical technologist Yolanda Samantha Dewar, of Sunrise, created a trust and sought fraudulent refunds from the IRS. Dewar filed four false tax returns on behalf of the trust she created to seek nearly $2 million in tax refunds. Dewar continued filing such returns even after the IRS notified her that her claims were frivolous and had no basis in law. In total, the IRS issued nearly $500,000 to the trust in response to Dewar's false claims. According to the indictment, Dewar allegedly used a portion of those tax refunds to purchase a car for a family member, get plastic surgery and renovate her home.

Dewar is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 24. She faces a maximum penalty of three years in prison, a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe for the Southern District of Florida and Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department's Tax Division made the announcement.

IRS Criminal Investigation (CI) is investigating the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Deric Zacca for the Southern District of Florida and Trial Attorneys Melissa S. Siskind and Kavitha Bondadaj of the Justice Department's Tax Division are prosecuting the case.

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. 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.