Germantown FEMA Employee Pleads Guilty To Filing False Tax Returns

GERMANTOWN, MD — A woman from Germantown pleaded guilty this week to aiding in the preparation of false tax returns during her time as an employee of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland said Tuesday.

Shanta Johnson, 44, was charged with filling out tax returns on behalf of her clients that included false information about deductions, fictional businesses and business expenses, and fake education expenses, the U.S. Attorney said.

Authorities say Johnson charged her clients to do this, and directed part of their inflated returns to one of the 20 bank accounts that she had. She prepared at least 194 tax returns and caused the IRS a loss of $217,424, according to the U.S. Attorney.

"She created and used numerous email accounts to establish accounts in the names of her clients on the online tax preparation software she used to make it appear as if her clients were preparing their own tax returns," a news release from the U.S. Attorney's office says. "Johnson did not list herself as the paid tax preparer on any of them, as required under IRS rules."

Johnson will likely serve between six and 15 months in prison and will be required to pay restitution, the news release said.