CONTACT: Patty Mayers, Communications Director
608.266.2300 or DORCommunications@wisconsin.gov
Two Milwaukee residents were sentenced on May 22, 2018 in Milwaukee County Circuit Court for their involvement in a tax fraud scheme that defrauded the Wisconsin Department of Revenue out of $22,217 between January 2010 and October 2015.
Raimone Lewis Sr., 50, and Melissa Hlawek, 31, entered guilty pleas on March 8, 2018.
Lewis was sentenced to two years in prison and two years extended supervision for one count of Filing a False Income Tax Return and one count of Identity Theft to Obtain Money.
Hlawek was sentenced to nine months in the Milwaukee House of Correction and three years’ probation for one count of being party to a crime of Filing a False Income Tax Return.
According to the criminal complaint, between 2010 and 2015 Lewis and Hlawek conspired to file 93 fraudulent state income tax returns. The returns included false wage and tax statements issued by two fake businesses requesting refunds of tax money that was never actually withheld.
Lewis and Hlawek were prosecuted by the Public Integrity Unit with the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office after an investigation by the Wisconsin Department of Revenue’s Office of Criminal Investigation and the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation.