Baltimore, Maryland – U.S. District Judge William D. Quarles, Jr. sentenced Karen Kimble, a/k/a “Karen Kimble-Mamah” and “Karen Mamah,” age 40, of Owings Mills, Maryland, to four years in prison followed by three years of supervised release for six counts of wire fraud, five counts of subscribing to a false tax return, five counts of aiding in the filing of a false tax return, four counts of aggravated identity theft and visa fraud. Judge Quarles also entered an order that Kimble pay $84,411 in restitution to the IRS and $26,419.92 in restitution to the State of Maryland.
The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge Andre Watson of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); Special Agent in Charge Thomas Jankowski of the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation, Washington, D.C. Field Office; and District Director Gregory Collett of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Baltimore District Office.
According to evidence presented to the court during the two day trial, Kimble falsely held herself out to others as a tax preparer with the skill and knowledge to prepare tax returns for others. From 2007 to 2012, Kimble falsely inflated credits and deductions on her personal and client tax returns in order to fraudulently increase the tax refund. Kimble increased the mortgage interest deduction on her and her alleged husband’s tax returns, often nearly doubling the amount she could properly claim, claimed education credits where she had not incurred expenses and invented tens of thousands of dollars in unreimbursed job expenses, when she had none.
Kimble provided some of her clients with a tax return that did not reflect the false deductions and credits, nor did she inform these clients of the fraudulent deductions/credits. She filed these fraudulent returns using their personally identifiable information. Kimble directed that the tax refunds be mailed or directly deposited to her, or that some of the refund was to be sent to the taxpayer and some to Kimble. On other occasions, Kimble prepared tax returns for friends, and without their knowledge, falsely inflated the deductions to obtain a larger refund, which she passed directly on to her friends.
The fraud loss related to the scheme totals $181,786 in fraudulent federal and state tax refunds, none of which she reported as income on her own tax returns. After accounting for the allowable, legitimate refunds for each victim, the amount owed to the IRS is $84,411 and the amount owed to the State of Maryland is $26,419.92.
Additionally, on February 14, 2008, Kimble married a Ghanian citizen, knowing that the marriage was not valid because the Ghanian was not legally divorced from his first wife. Kimble prepared and filed false documents in state court and with the USCIS, purporting to show that the Ghanian citizen had divorced before she married him.
United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein praised HSI Baltimore, IRS-Criminal Investigation and the USCIS Baltimore District Office for their work in the investigation. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant United States Attorney Kathleen O. Gavin, who prosecuted the case.