An El Dorado County woman was sentenced to 120 months in prison for conspiring to file more than 250 false tax refund claims.

Teresa Marty, 57, of Pollock Pines was the owner of Advanced Financial Services (AFS), a Placerville tax return preparation business. Marty conspired with her office manager, Pamela Harris, and Rebecca Bandera-Marty to file fraudulent federal tax returns claiming more than $60 million in refunds. According to court records, Marty and Harris recruited clients by falsely representing that the clients could legally receive large refunds by filing tax returns using IRS Forms 1099-OID. AFS prepared false Forms 1099-OID that reported the clients’ debts as income and the same amount as income tax withheld, resulting in significant claims for refund to which the clients were not entitled.

The scheme included clients from 26 states and caused the IRS to pay out more than 40 tax refunds, totaling more than $9 million. The IRS listed the use of false Forms 1099-OID on its website as one of the “dirty dozen” tax schemes for the years 2009 through 2014.

In addition to the prison term, Marty was ordered to serve two years of supervised release and to pay $9,500,492 in restitution to the IRS.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report