Arkansas elderly sisters receive federal prison sentences for $11.5 million fraud scheme

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Seven defendants, including four sisters, received federal prison sentences Friday after pleading guilty to an $11.5 million fraud scheme last July.

The four sisters were each sentenced to 24 months in the United States District Court, Little Rock. Lynda Charles, 73, of Hot Springs, Rosie Bryant, 75, of Colleyville, Texas, Delois Bryant, 76, of North Little Rockand Brenda Sherpell, 73, of Allport had pleaded guilty to mail fraud and defrauding the Internal Revenue Service.

Also sentenced was 50-year-old Niki Charles of Puerto Rico, to 16 months. Charles had admitted in court that she and others solicited people to file false claims, asserting they were discriminated against when they tried to get assistance from USDA for their farming operations.

Charles told the court she verified statements from corroborating witnesses who submitted affidavits to support the claims, but none of those witnesses actually appeared before Charles. Those actions resulted in $4.5 million in loss.

Little Rock attorney 76-year-old Everett Martindale was sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison. Martindale acted as the legal representative for most of the claimants the five women recruited.

Jerry Green, 42, of Grand Prairie, Texas, a tax preparer hired by the sisters to falsify tax returns, was also sentenced to serve a year and a day.

Prosecutors outlined how the scheme worked.

The group took advantage of a USDA program established after a 1997 class action lawsuit resulted in claims being paid to Black, Hispanic and women farmers for discrimination. The sisters involved themselves in 192 claims, resulting in a $11.5 million loss to the USDA.

Each claimant received $62,500, with $12,500 withheld for tax repayment to the IRS. The sisters would arrange for the claimants to pay them a fee from the proceeds.

Martindale’s $1,500 attorney’s fee for each claim, the maximum permitted by the USDA claim process, also was divided in half with the sisters, officials said.

Green admitted to providing false tax returns for the claimants’ recruited by the sisters so they would receive a tax refund.

Prosecutors said three of the sisters — Lynda Charles, Rosie Bryant, and Delois Bryant — filed their own false tax returns and used money from the conspiracy to purchase homes and properties, a Chevrolet van, and a Mercedes G550, prosecutors said. The United States is pursuing recovery of those assets, and any additional fraud proceeds.

The defendants were also assigned two years of supervised release following imprisonment, and $9 million in restitution.

from KARK https://ift.tt/milWJqY