Birmingham Woman Sentenced In Wire Fraud Case

BIRMINGHAM, AL — A Birmingham woman was sentenced by a federal judge to 15 years in prison for her conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and intimidating a witness. Quincetta Yvonne Cargill, 48, was convicted in February of one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and one count of witness tampering.

Evidence at trial, including witness testimony, bank records and IRS tax returns proved that Cargill obtained the names, dates of birth and social security numbers of individuals, told them she was submitting their information for a federal grant program, and instead helped file fraudulent tax returns with their information.

Court records show Cargill then directed others to open bank accounts, and used her own bank accounts, to receive tax refund checks from those fraudulently filed returns. In total, Cargill and her co-conspirators obtained more that $1 million from refunds from fraudulent tax returns.

Evidence at trial also proved that Cargill attempted to intimidate a witness in her case by sending information about the witness and their potential testimony to members of a motorcycle club, in order to influence or prevent that witness from testifying at trial.

In addition to her sentencing, Cargill was ordered to pay $1,096,668.68 in restitution.