BATON ROUGE – A St. Mary Parish woman working as a tax preparer has been jailed for allegedly fabricating companies that didn't actually exist in a massive fraud scheme that resulted in the theft of thousands of dollars. 

Investigators with the Louisiana Department of Revenue (LDR) say Dawanna Monay Monroe, of 317 Callahan Street in Patterson, filed dozens of tax returns containing phony business losses on behalf of individual taxpayers who were not business owners.

This type of fraud scheme is a common tactic among unscrupulous preparers trying to generate business by promising unrealistically large refunds for clients.

Monroe’s alleged fraud scheme cost Louisiana taxpayers approximately $193,000 in improper refunds. She was booked into the East Baton Rouge Parish prison on Tuesday, Aug. 4 on charges of Principal to Felony Theft over $25,000, Principal to

Filing or Maintaining False Public Records and Principal to Illegal Transmission of Monetary Funds.

Monroe is the 73rd person arrested under a joint anti-tax fraud initiative of the Louisiana Department of Revenue and the state Attorney General’s Office.