Burlington Tax Preparer Sentenced to 25 Months for $2 Million Fraud Scheme

Tracey Ann Hernandez, 39, of Burlington was sentenced Tuesday to 25 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $2,106,281 in restitution after pleading guilty to filing more than 200 fraudulent tax returns while deliberately hiding her own name from every one of them.

Hernandez pleaded guilty on Sept. 5, 2025, to one count of aiding and assisting in the filing of a false tax return in U.S. District Court in Greensboro. A federal judge also ordered one year of supervised release at the conclusion of her prison term.

IRS Criminal Investigation agents found that Hernandez prepared and filed more than 200 false Forms 1040 for clients covering tax years 2021 and 2022. She operated as a "ghost preparer," a practice in which a paid tax preparer deliberately omits their own signature from returns they file on behalf of clients, making the fraudulent filings harder to trace. The false returns included fraudulent education expenses, refundable education credits, fabricated Schedule C forms, and improper credits for sick and family leave for self-employed individuals, prosecutors said.

U.S. Attorney Dan Bishop of the Middle District of North Carolina oversaw the prosecution.

Hernandez was not at liberty when she appeared for sentencing. She has been held at the Alamance County Detention Center with no bond allowed since a June 2025 crash that killed Lily Rose Hahn, 18, of Snow Camp and injured Hernandez and four children who were in her car. A federal judge issued a writ of habeas corpus to have Hernandez transported from the Alamance jail to the Greensboro courthouse for the sentencing hearing, according to court records.

State charges against Hernandez, including second-degree murder, remain pending in connection with the June 2025 wreck. The federal guilty plea had no bearing on that separate case, according to the Times-News.