Tax Preparer Gets Prison Time, Must Pay $1.3 Million Restitution: Authorities

LANSING, IL — A south suburban tax preparer was sentenced Tuesday to prison time after filing over 900 fraudulent returns claiming more than $1.3 million in refunds, authorities said.

Vervia Watts, of Lansing, was sentenced to one year and one day in prison as well as a year of supervised release, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, which added she was also ordered to pay over $1.3 million in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service.

From at least January 2017 to June 2023, Watts prepared and filed returns for clients that reported false education expenses and business income to obtain larger refunds than the clients were entitled to receive, authorities said.

Watts made at least $300 for each return she prepared and the IRS paid about $1.3 million in fraudulent returns, according to the department.