A Sunrise woman is accused of filing false tax returns and amassing half a million dollars in refunds, some of which she spent on a family member’s car, plastic surgery, and home renovations, prosecutors say.
Yolanda Dewar, a surgical technologist, was arrested Friday on a federal indictment charging her with four counts of filing false tax returns, the U.S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida said in a news release. If convicted, she could face up to 12 years in prison.
Dewar filed returns in the name of the “Yolanda Dewar Trust” or “YD Trust,” prosecutors wrote in the indictment. She would report that the trust had earned large sums of money and had federal income taxes withheld, then claim increasingly steep tax refunds from the IRS, many of which the agency paid. Dewar ended up seeking close to $2 million from the IRS, receiving approximately $500,000.
In February of 2018, Dewar filed the first false tax return for the 2017 year in the name of the trust, claiming a refund of $92,720, according to the indictment. In March, the IRS issued a U.S Treasury check to her for $92,839. Dewar then opened a bank account in the name of the trust and deposited the check there.
The next year, Dewar filed another tax return for 2018, this time claiming a refund of $404,041. The IRS issued her another check in the same amount. She then opened another bank account for the check.
Dewar signed the forms she submitted “under penalties of perjury,” the indictment states. That June, the IRS sent Dewar a letter about her 2017 tax return, saying two of the forms she had submitted on behalf of the trust were “frivolous” and had “no basis in law.” The indictment does not say what came of the letter or if Dewar had to forfeit any of the money at the time.
The year after that, in February 2020, Dewar filed another tax return for the 2019 year, claiming a refund of $719,530. This time, the IRS sent a letter to the trust, received at Dewar’s home, saying that it had “assessed taxes against YD Trust with respect to the 2018 year.” The indictment doesn’t say if she paid the assessed taxes.
About a year later, in January of 2021, Dewar filed another tax refund for 2019, this time claiming a refund of $716,860.
Dewar allegedly spent some of the money on a car for a family member, plastic surgery for herself, and to renovate her new home, prosecutors said in the release. She faces up to three years in prison for each of the four counts, in addition to supervised release and financial penalties.
Prosecutors did not say how much of the $500,000 the IRS had retrieved from Dewar.
