The owner of a Kansas City-area real estate agency was indicted for with tax evasion and wire fraud.
According to the charges brought against her, Michelle O’Connor of Louisburg, Kansas, filed federal income tax returns for 2008 through 2015 that said she owed approximately $300,000 in taxes. However, she did not pay them. In 2011, the IRS audited her 2008 and 2009 tax returns and concluded that O’Connor had improperly claimed tens of thousands of dollars in personal expenses as charitable deductions to the “Church of Revelation and Love,” a purported church she and her husband created. Based on that audit, the IRS assessed over $40,000 in additional taxes against O’Connor.
Starting in 2011, the IRS began trying to collect the outstanding taxes from O’Connor, sending her over 50 notices. From 2011 through 2023, however, she tried to dodge the collections efforts by filing three separate false bankruptcy petitions, purchasing approximately $250,000 of cashier’s checks to reduce her bank account balances, and closing her personal bank accounts and using her business’ bank accounts to pay personal expenses.
By 2020, O’Connor owed the IRS nearly $500,000 in taxes, penalties, and interest. That year, she submitted 34 fraudulent Covid-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) applications on behalf of her real estate business and seven other corporate entities she created for the purpose of maximizing potential EIDL credits. O’Connor received nearly $300,000 from her fraudulent EIDLs, which she used for personal purposes, including $115,000 to purchase cryptocurrency.
If convicted, O’Connor faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison for tax evasion and a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each count of wire fraud.
