ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A 54-year-old American Samoan woman suspected of filing $1.3 million in fraudulent U.S. tax refund claims has been arrested.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A 54-year-old American Samoan woman suspected of filing $1.3 million in fraudulent U.S. tax refund claims has been arrested.
Coriana Ifopo is charged with 28 counts of making false claims to a government agency for tax years 2013-15.
She was arrested Tuesday in Honolulu. Assistant U.S. Attorney Aunnie Steward says Ifopo will be prosecuted in Alaska, where Ifopo claimed some of her tax filers lived.
Online court records do not list her attorney.
An indictment says Ifopo falsified tax return forms, claiming more than 200 American Samoa residents were living “off-island” and entitled to refunds and earned income credits. Prosecutors say she listed false dependents and false withholdings.
Prosecutors say Ifopo filed returns from Alaska to make it appear as if filers were outside of American Samoa.