WASHINGTON – An Alabama woman pleaded guilty recently to six counts of wire fraud and three counts of filing false tax returns, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Louis V. Franklin Sr. for the Middle District of Alabama.
According to court documents, from February 2007, through May 2014, Alita Baker Edeker, a resident of Valley, Alabama, embezzled $700,000 of her employer’s funds for her own personal benefit, by directing her company’s clients’ payments to debit and credit cards she controlled. Edeker made false statements and representations in the company’s books and records in order to conceal her embezzlement. After embezzling the funds, Edeker willfully filed false tax returns for tax years 2011, 2012, and 2013, that did not report the money.
Edeker faces a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for each wire fraud count and three years in prison for each count of filing a false tax return. Edeker also faces a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties.
Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman and United States Attorney Louis V. Franklin Sr. commended special agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation and the Auburn, Alabama Police Department, who investigated the case, and Assistant United States Attorney Ben Baxley and Trial Attorney Grace Albinson of the Tax Division, who are prosecuting this case.
Additional information about the Tax Division and its enforcement efforts may be found on the division’s website.
