Woman gets 5 years for using murder victims' names to get COVID stimulus payments, tax refunds

CHICAGO (CBS) -- A woman has been sentenced to 5 years in prison for a scheme to file false tax returns and obtain fraudulent COVID-19 stimulus payments using the identities of homicide victims in Chicago and beyond – some of them children.

As CBS 2's Charlie De Mar reported when Katrina Pierce was first charged in the case in 2021, the families of homicide victims and violence in Chicago were of course already grieving when they lost loved ones — only to be victimized all over again, this time financially.

In September 2021, Pierce was indicted on 10 counts of wire fraud, six counts of aggravated identity theft, three counts of making false statements to the U.S. Small Business Administration, and one count of possessing identification documents to defraud the United States.

In August 2022, Pierce pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft.

On Friday, U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall sentenced Pierce to 61 months in prison, followed by 3 years of supervised release.

Among Pierce's victims was Amari Brown, who was just 7 years old when he was shot and killed on a Humboldt Park neighborhood sidewalk in 2015.

According to the charges, a special agent from the IRS reported that the Cook County Bureau of Vital Records first became suspicious of Pierce in October or November 2019, when a staffer downloaded electronic applications for death certificates submitted by currency exchanges within one day.

It turned out that Pierce had filed to obtain 37 death certificates in 2019 alone, and had succeeded in getting at least 26. All were homicide victims ranging in age from 2 to 22 who had been killed on the Chicago's South and West sides.

Requests for death certificates had also come in from a "Tracy Scott" and a "Tammy Jones" using the same West Englewood neighborhood address on Winchester Avenue that Pierce herself had used, the complaint said. Both names are suspected to be aliases for Pierce. The applications claimed "Scott" worked for "Pierce Auto" and Jones for "Pierce Inc." at the West Englewood building, according to the charges.

In January 2020, IRS agents went to the West Englewood building, which turned out to be a residential two-flat, the complaint said. They went to the garbage cans out back and took four trash bags – in which they found discarded handwritten notes about all different people who had died – with names, dates of birth, and other information, and with manners of death such as "shot," "stabbed," or "fall" scribbled in the margins.

Pierce sought to steal the identities of homicide victims in St. Louis, and at least one St. Louis shooting victim's name was used by Pierce to file false tax returns in both 2020 and 2021 for false COVID stimulus checks and prepaid debit cards, according to the charges.

Investigators later determined that Pierce had filed more than a dozen false tax returns in 2020 and 2021 – using her own name, an alias, or a stolen ID.

The first was a Form 1040 filed in February 2020 on behalf of a homicide victim whose identity Pierce had stolen after getting his death certificate fraudulently from the county, the complaint said. The form claimed a refund of $1,923 to be deposited in an account at Green Dot Bank, which issues prepaid debit cards, the complaint said.

The man whose name Pierce is accused of using in this case was shot and killed in a backyard in 2013, and Pierce claimed to be his sister, according to the charges.

There were numerous other tax returns Pierce filed that followed a similar pattern, according to the complaint. In one, she claimed as a dependent child a 7-year-old boy who had been shot and killed on a Chicago sidewalk in 2015, and claimed she was entitled to a Child Tax Credit and an Earned Income Tax Credit.

The boy referenced in this filing is believed to be Amari, who was killed in a drive-by shooting in the 1100 block of North Harding Avenue on July 4, 2015. His murder made headlines that summer.

Another return filed in April 2020 used the name "Rajona Pierce" – an alias that Pierce had admitted to using before, the complaint said. This return reported $1 in income and did not claim a refund, and claimed it represented receipts from a beauty salon at 4946 S. State St. – where a Robert Taylor Homes high-rise used to stand and where there is now nothing at all, according to the charges.

Pierce filed false returns using the name of a man shot and killed in St. Louis twice – in both 2020 and 2021, the complaint said. She used her own home address in Grand Crossing for the return and listed a checking account for prepaid debit card provided Stride Bank.

Stride Bank records showed the U.S. Treasury deposited a $10 refund on a claim of $100 income, and a $1,400 COVID-19 stimulus payment, into the account Pierce had set up.

Pierce also filed a tax return claiming the murdered 7-year-old boy - again believed to be Amari - as her dependent again in 2019, claiming she was entitled to a Child Tax Credit and an Earned Income Tax Credit.

Charging documents indicate that Pierce could not keep the lie straight when it came to Amari.

The complaint said, "(W)hen Pierce requested (Amari Brown)'s death certificate in 2019, she claimed that she was A.B.'s aunt - contrary to the above tax return in which she claimed that A.B. was her son."

The IRS agent reported the use of accounts with various banks that issue prepaid debit cards was an attempt at money laundering.

Pierce also applied for multiple Economic Injury Disaster Loans on behalf of small businesses that either weren't real or were located elsewhere in Illinois or in other states – including Iowa, Montana, and Idaho – the complaint alleged. None of these applications were approved due to suspected fraud.

In one instance, Pierce is suspected of applying for a loan on behalf of a manufacturing business called "Katrina D. Pierce LLC" at the West Englewood address, which purported to have 106 employees and $670,000 in gross revenue.

She also filed for loans using the name of an agriculture business in southern Illinois, a small business owner from Idaho, and one farmer in Montana and two in Iowa, according to the charges.

The IRS agent talked with the boyfriend of Pierce's niece, who admitted that he and his girlfriend lived on the second floor of the West Englewood building that was used as the address on many of the tax return filings and loan applications, the complaint said. He said Pierce had gone to jail for 11 years for fraud before, and said Pierce had had a falling out with his girlfriend.

The niece's boyfriend said Pierce had moved in with them after getting out of prison in April 2019, and had moved out around spring 2020, the complaint said. He told the agent that Pierce did not like him because he stood in the way of Pierce defrauding her niece.

He also said he kept getting mail in other people's names – including death certificates and prepaid debit cards to which authorities have now linked Pierce.

Pierce's niece herself corroborated this story, according to the charges.

In 2012, Pierce was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison for a similar scheme. She apparently served seven, having been released in 2019.

Pierce already had 10 previous fraud or theft convictions at that point, federal prosecutors said at the time of her indictment.

In 2012, Pierce was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison for a similar scheme. She apparently served seven, having been released in 2019.

Pierce already had 10 previous fraud or theft convictions at that point, federal prosecutors said at the time.

In the 2012 case, Pierce pleaded guilty to fraud and aggravated identity theft. Prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo that she "engaged in expansive and all-consuming schemes to steal identities from the dead, misappropriate funds from the coffers of her country, cheat programs designed to benefit children and working parents, and swindle governments across the nation — all to enrich herself. Stealing was [her] full time occupation and she was good at it."

In the earlier case, Pierce obtained driver's licenses, birth certificates, and Social Security cards using the names and identifying information of people who had died – and the ID cards she obtained had her picture alongside the dead people's names, prosecutors said. This went on from January 2007 to July 2008.

She also obtained fraudulent documents for "Rajona Pierce" – the alias she is also accused of using in this latest case, prosecutors said. Pierce even had what purported to be a birth certificate and Social Security card for the fictitious "Rajona Pierce," prosecutors said at the time.

In the 2012 case, Pierce caused about 180 fraudulent federal income tax returns to be filed for the tax years 2006 and 2007 – once again claiming to be representing someone who had died. She falsely claimed more than half a million dollars in tax refunds and got more than $60,000 before the IRS caught on, prosecutors said at the time.

Pierce also defrauded an Illinois Department of Human Services program that provided funding to child care providers – in which she used stolen identities and fraudulent documents to make up a fictitious child care provider, fictitious children, and fictitious parents, prosecutors said. All told, she collected more than $146,000 from the state on behalf of 13 made-up child care providers, prosecutors said.

She also obtained $3,800 in food stamp benefits from the U.S. Department of Agriculture on behalf of "Rajona Pierce," and got more than $21,000 through filing false state tax returns in Kansas, Maryland, New York, and other states, prosecutors said.

She also paid people to lie to federal agents in the 2012 case, prosecutors said.