Ehrenfriede Kauapirura, a former dietician at a Brooklyn hospital, faces a prison sentence for tax fraud-related charges, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a press release on Thursday.
Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Tax Division said a federal jury convicted Kauapirura for filing and aiding in filing false tax returns, obstructing the Internal Revenue Service, and neglecting to file tax returns. The conviction emanates from crimes committed between between 2015 and 2020.
The doctor filed a false amended tax return in 2015 and a fraudulent tax original return the following year, cashing in on a $500,000 refund for both refunds.
Between 2017 and 2020, Kauapirura failed to submit tax returns despite earning a substantial salary. She also filed a fraudulent $1 million check drawn on a non-existent bank to pay her tax obligations.
The doctor further obstructed attempts by the IRS to recover the fraudulent tax refunds by clearing her personal bank accounts and transferring the money to a secondary account of a purported trust.
"To thwart the IRS's collection efforts, Kauapirura transferred money from her personal bank account to a bank account that she controlled held in the name of a purported trust," the department said in a statement.
Kauapirura was arrested in August last year following an indictment returned by the grand jury.
She faces a statutory maximum sentence of three years in prison for each false return and obstruction count and one year for each count of willful failure to file a tax return.
Kauapirura also faces a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties. A federal district court judge will consult the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors before issuing an appropriate sentence on March 7, 2024.
The IRS Crime Investigation is probing the matter.
