Joliet Woman Sentenced to 3.5 Years for Money Laundering
- Noah Mussay
- Sep 14, 2016
- 2 min read
Joliet, IL—Illinois Attorney General, Lisa Madigan, released a statement Thursday, September 8, 2016, stating that Joliet resident, Gerrie Cokenour—of 1100 Trailsend Lane in Joliet—age 42, plead guilty to fraud charges, having defrauded the state of more than $400,000.
The official charges filed in February against Cokenour and her accomplice, Nycole Simms-Stevens—of 200 Duncan Street also in Joliet—age 43, state, “theft of government property over $100,000” and “entering false information on hundreds of Illinois income tax returns.”
The Herald-News reported Thursday that from 2012 until this year, Cokenour and Simms-Stevens had been laundering the money through Cokenour’s tax preparation business, Tax Advocators Inc., formerly located at 819 W. Jefferson St in Joliet.
According to the statement, prompted by complaints of hidden fees and stolen tax refunds that were sent to the Consumer Fraud Bureau, the Illinois Department of Revenue’s Criminal Investigations Division (IDOR) conducted an investigation against the tax preparers.
The investigation uncovered 764 fraudulent state income tax returns—containing exaggerated property tax data as well as tax deductions—that the women had prepared over the past four years.
“The defendant stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from the state for her own benefit,” said Madigan on Thursday.
When asked about her response to Cokenaur’s plea, IDOR director, Connie Beard said: “This guilty please should send a clear message that attempts to steal the public’s money by filing fraudulently-prepared tax returns will not be tolerated.”
Following the plea, Cokenour was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in the Illinois Department of Corrections.
According to the statement released by the attorney general’s office, Cokenaur’s sentence will follow an 18-month sentence she is currently serving after pleading guilty to federal tax fraud charges.
The case against Simms-Stevens is still open. She is expected for a pretrial court date on September 30th.
