Date: May 7, 2025
Contact: [email protected]
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A Grandview, Mo., woman was sentenced in federal court today for filing false tax returns for others.
Sandra Mondaine was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Greg Kays to 33 months in federal prison without parole. The court also ordered Mondaine to pay restitution of $1,113,215.90 to the Internal Revenue Service.
On Nov. 13, 2024, Mondaine plead guilty to one count of aiding and abetting the preparation and filing of false tax returns.
Mondaine was an ex-IRS employee and Missouri-based return preparer who prepared returns for clients in the Kansas City metropolitan area. Mondaine obtained tax return information from clients either by meeting them in person or through the mail. Mondaine then prepared returns with false information, namely, false residential energy credits, charitable contributions, medical expenses, dependents, etc. Finally, she retained a portion of the claimed refund before providing the rest of the refund to her clients. Mondaine also appears to have submitted doctored and fake substantiation documentation when her clients were audited by the IRS.
According to the IRS review, the total tax loss related to the counts of conviction was $1,113,215.90.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul S. Becker. It was investigated by IRS-Criminal Investigation.
IRS-CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a 90% federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 14 attaché posts abroad.