On June 28, 2023, in the District of Arizona, Jackie Peters was arrested for conspiracy to defraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and for theft of public money. In total, Peters and her co-conspirators transferred more than $2.5 million in fraudulent 2019 tax refunds, from bank accounts in her control, to obtain Bitcoin.

According to the court documents, beginning in or around late February 2020, Peters used stolen taxpayer information to prepare and submit fraudulent tax returns to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Peters routinely falsified components of the tax returns, including earned income, itemized expenses, and itemized deductions, in order to obtain a higher refund than would otherwise be due to the legitimate taxpayer. In some instances, the false refunds were deposited into accounts created and controlled by Peters; in other instances, the false returns were first deposited into accounts controlled by others, and then transferred to an account controlled by Peters. In addition to fraudulent tax refunds, the bank accounts controlled by Peters also received U.S. Treasury deposits in the form of COVID relief funds that were intended for the named taxpayers. The contents of these bank accounts were then transferred for the purpose of purchasing Bitcoin.

Source:  The facts in this case narrative come from the following publicly available documents: D. Ariz., Arrest Warrant, filed June 28, 2023; and D. Ariz., Indict., filed June 20, 2023.