By Damon R. Sheffield

Copyright hoodline

In a federal indictment unsealed in Boise, an Idaho couple and three accomplices are charged with attempting to defraud the U.S. government out of millions via a wire fraud scheme, the Department of Justice reported. The defendants allegedly submitted false tax returns and other fictitious documents to the IRS to claim hefty refunds. Kent and Andrea Shannon of Kuna, Idaho, along with their co-defendants Brittany Plahm from Illinois, Monika Skinger from Chicago, and Sherita Chandler from Florida have made their initial court appearance.

The DOJ’s announcement details the Shannons, alongside their alleged co-conspirators, submitting over a hundred false financial instruments to the IRS, such as fake checks and money orders to feign tax payments. The group’s purported scheme spanned between 2023 and 2024, attempting to trick the IRS into returning around $57 million in taxes that were never actually paid. Two defendants, upon their indictment, made their appearance before a judge last week; the others had previously appeared.

According to the indictment, the Shannons used part of the ill-gotten gains to purchase luxury vehicles, splurging on a $90,000 Cadillac Escalade and a $144,000 GMC Sierra 3500. While flaunting their new whips, the scale of their alleged deception was racking up serious legal charges; all parties are now facing conspiracy to commit wire fraud charges, which could result in a 20-year prison sentence for each count.

IRS Criminal Investigations is taking the lead on this case, with David F. Scollan of the Tax Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Brittney Campbell prosecuting. The complexity of the financial deception unearthed here speaks to a considered effort at defrauding not a store, not a bank, but the federal government itself. While the accused have been granted the presumption of innocence until proven guilty, Kent Shannon has additional charges to contend with, including money laundering, which could tack on another 10 years to his potential time behind bars if convicted.

The alleged fraud comes as a stark reminder of the lengths to which individuals may go to deceive the system. For the Shannons and their colleagues, the truth of their actions will be weighed in court, based on the evidence and the law, while the rest of society looks on, perhaps with a sense of bafflement at the audacity it takes to steal so boldly from the public coffers. The outcome of their trial and the possible sentences will be determined as the wheels of justice grind forward, meticulously examining the charges brought before them.