Patterson woman guilty of wire fraud

A Patterson woman on Thursday pleaded guilty in federal court to committing wire fraud in a scheme that defrauded clients in her tax preparation business.

Yesenia Ramirez, 33, is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 14. She faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine.

Ramirez prepared federal income tax returns for clients of Patterson Financial during the 2006, 2007 and 2008 filing seasons.

She provided the clients copies of their tax returns reflecting lower refunds than they actually were receiving, according to the plea agreement.

Ramirez directed the federal tax refunds to be directly deposited into her bank account, and then she gave the clients the lesser refunds.

The case is the result of an investigation by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.