Frances Yvonne Rowland, age 43, of Anchorage, was sentenced on March 20th, to serve more than 6 years for Tax Fraud, Credit Card Fraud, and Identity Theft.

Rowland, also known as Yvonne Rowland, Frances Yvonne Carter, and Frances Leary, pled guilty to those crimes which stemmed from schemes she concocted to defraud family and clients out of an estimated $1,000,000 from 2005 to 2008.

Rowland owned a number of small businesses in Anchorage and Wasilla during that period. Included were Carter and Associates, LLC, Carter Organization, LLC, Carter Financial Group, LLC, and Carter Tax Incorporated. Her most recent business was A-Plus Tax and Accounting Services. She used these assorted businesses to provide accounting and tax preparation to small businesses and individuals.

Rowland had orchestrated a scheme to defraud the government and her clients through false tax returns and collected return monies. Rowland did tax preparations, and when clients owed money to the IRS, Rowland would have the clients deposit the tax money into a trust, and she would supply the client with a tax return copy. She would then, in some cases, according to the federal report, prepare another false return to send to the IRS, file for extensions, and file other false documents with the IRS.

According to court documents, at least nine separate clients, transferred $700,000 in the trust account that Rowland used to pay personal and business expenses, such as travel, mortgage payments on her house, and payments on other client’s taxes when she would be close to being found out on other returns. She also paid court ordered restitution from those funds. Restitution ordered from an earlier case she was involved in and did time for.

Besides filing taxes for clients, she filed for herself. In those filings it was found that she was claiming herself as a low-income taxpayer and claiming credits she was not due. According to the prosecution, there were multiple false items.

Rowland racked up a $300,000 debt on credit cards as well. But, the debt wasn’t in her name. She stole a family member’s name and used it to apply and get numerous credit cards that she proceeded to max out.

This is not Rowland’s first brush with the law concerning money crimes. Rowland was convicted and jailed for embezzlement in 1996. In that case, Rowland was convicted of stealing $200,000 from Carlyle Trucking when she worked there as a bookkeeper. She was sentenced to four years.

United States District Judge Timothy M. Burgess sentenced Rowland to serve 75 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release monitored by a U.S. probation officer. During supervision, she is prohibited from preparing tax returns and is required to notify all present and future clients of her felony convictions. She was also ordered to pay a $25,000 fine.

Judge Burgess, when sentencing her, expressed concern about the need to protect the public from Rowland’s criminal behavior.