Richland County woman pleads guilty to preparing fraudulent tax returns

A Columbia woman was sentenced to prison last week after she pled guilty to one count of willfully making or assisting false or fraudulent South Carolina Income Tax returns.

Maribel Crespo was charged in 2025 with preparing state tax returns from 2020-23, which violated a 2016 conviction for willfully preparing false returns.

As a result of her 2016 conviction, Crespo was sentenced to 366 days in prison and prohibited from preparing South Carolina returns in the future.

But in 2023, SCDOR agents learned Crespo was again assisting taxpayers with the preparation of returns. In addition to that violation, the SCDOR's review of those returns revealed that they contained fraudulent information, which caused the SCDOR to issue larger refunds to taxpayers than they were entitled to receive.

On Tuesday, November 3, Crespo pled guilty to one count of making or assisting false or fraudulent returns. Circuit Judge Heath P. Taylor sentenced her to 16 months in prison.

If you suspect or know of anyone or a business that has committed a state tax crime, such as tax evasion or tax fraud, submit a Tax Violation Complaint to the SCDOR:

• We recommend submitting your complaint on My​DORWAY​, the SCDOR's free online tax portal. Get started at dor.sc.gov/tax-violation-complaint.
  • You do not need to log in or create an account to submit a complaint on MyDORWAY.
• You can also submit a paper version of the Tax Violation Complaint form, which is available at dor.sc.gov/taxfraud.

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