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Escambia Woman Gets Federal Prison Time For Preparing 20 False Tax Returns
December 23, 2025
An Escambia County woman has been sentenced to federal prison for a fraudulent tax return scheme.
Khristine N. Harper, 42, previously pleaded guilty to 20 counts of aiding and assisting the preparation of false tax returns and one count of identity theft. She was sentenced to two years in federal prison.
“I applaud the excellent investigative work by our federal law enforcement partners to identify and dismantle this offender’s sophisticated fraud scheme,” said United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida John P. Heekin. Defrauding the federal government victimizes every tax paying citizen, and my office will aggressively pursue criminal prosecutions of fraudsters to ensure they are held accountable to the full extent of the law for their crimes.”
Court documents reflect that between 2018 and 2024, Harper routinely prepared and filed fraudulent income tax returns for her clients by listing false amounts for various deductions, credits, and other items that were never provided to her by those clients. After Harper became aware in July 2023 that the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation was investigating her, she changed the name of her tax preparation business from Kings Tax Service to Echelon Tax. She also obtained a Preparer Tax Identification Number (PTIN) in another person’s name without permission and filed her clients’ 2023 returns using that fraudulently obtained PTIN.
In addition to being sentenced to two years in prison, Harper was ordered to pay $284,490 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service as a condition of a two-year term of supervised release to follow her prison sentence, $132,809.74 in statutorily mandated costs of prosecution, and a $2,100 special monetary assessment.
“Tax return preparers who deliberately file fraudulent returns are committing serious federal crimes with every submission,” said IRS Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge Ron Loecker of the Florida Field Office. “IRS-CI will relentlessly pursue dishonest preparers to protect taxpayers and uphold the integrity of the tax system. Those who break the law will be held accountable—period.”
“This case was the result of coordinated efforts between investigators and prosecutors committed to protecting the public,” said FBI Jacksonville Special Agent in Charge Jason Carley. “We will continue to aggressively work to identify, investigate and hold accountable those who commit fraud.”
The sentence was the result of a joint investigation by the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
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