Prosecutors Move to Seize $200K, Jaguar, Avalanche and Computers From Tax Preparers Charged With Stealing From State

JOLIET, IL — A pair of tax preparers charged with scamming the state out of more than $400,000 now stand to lose a lot of their own money, along with a couple cars and some computers.

Prosecutors filed a forfeiture complaint to take away $216,444.09 in cash, a 2010 Jaguar XF, a 2004 Chevy Avalanche, and five computers from Gerrie Cokenour and Nycole Simms-Stevens.

Cokenour, 42, and Simms-Steves, 44, filed hundreds of falsified tax returns over a three-years period, bilking the state out of more than $400,000, according to the attorney general’s office.

The two Joliet women were arrested in February and their bonds were set at $1 million each. Simms-Stevens’ attorneys later got her bond cut down to $100,000. She posted the $10,000 needed for her release in March.

Cokenour’s bond stayed at $1 million and she remains in jail.

Cokenour and Simms-Stevens worked for Tax Advocators, a Joliet tax preparation business owned by Cokenour, the attorney general’s office said in a statement.

“Over the course of several years, Cokenour and Simms-Stevens allegedly prepared 764 fraudulent state income tax returns,” the statement said. The “returns allegedly contained inflated and fraudulent property tax data and other fraudulent deductions, which cost the state more than $400,000.”