Police: $300,000 Tax Fraud Targeted Virginia Prisoners

A woman is accused of collecting $300,000 in tax refunds by falsely filing tax returns for 40 victims, including more than two dozen inmates in Virginia prisons, according to the Spostylvania County Sheriff's Office.

Dorothy Anne Beach, 50, of Alexandria, was charged with racketeering, identity theft, grand larceny, money laundering, filing a false tax return and being a tax preparer who files a false tax return. Deputies took her into custody Thursday after an 18-month investigation.

Beach allegedly used the identities of 25 inmates, along with 15 of her relatives, collecting tax refunds by falsely filing income tax returns with the IRS.

Earlier this week, a Baton Rouge, La., woman was sentenced to 81 months in prison for filing 600 false tax returns.

And a Georgia man was sentenced to a year in prison for filing 10 false tax returns, including one in the name of Attorney General Eric Holder.