LAUREL WOMAN SENTENCED FOR ATTEMPTED $2.6 MILLION TAX SCAM

Attorney General J. Joseph Curran, Jr. announced today the sentencing of Mari Ayn Sailer, 27, on her conviction for filing 12 bogus State tax returns which sought in excess of $2.6 million in refunds. Sailer, of the 9000 block of 1st Avenue of Laurel, had pled guilty in July before the Honorable Michael Loney, Anne Arundel County Circuit Court, to one count of tax perjury, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. On September 17, Judge Loney sentenced Sailer to a three-year suspended term and three years of probation, to run concurrently with a federal tax fraud sentence imposed against Sailer the previous week. In the federal case, she received 18 months incarceration.

According to a Statement of Facts read into the record at the guilty plea, the defendant electronically filed the 12 bogus returns in April and May, 2002. She filed four returns in her own name and other returns in the names of her brother, her mother, her deceased father, and her boyfriend. For each of the returns, Sailer created a phony W-2 reporting a six-figure income and high withholding, resulting in requests for high refunds. Sailer’s deception was uncovered by the State Comptroller’s Office in time to deny the requested refunds, so the State did not suffer any loss.

“ We are fortunate that the Comptroller’s Office foiled Ms. Sailer’s outrageous scheme. Tax fraud is a crime that hurts the State and all taxpayers,” said Attorney General Curran.

The case was referred to the Criminal Investigations Division of the Attorney General’s Office by the Office of the Comptroller, and was investigated by the Maryland State Police.

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