Briton Cierrah Williams was sentenced to four years in prison for her involvement in tax fraud, bank fraud, insurance fraud and pandemic-related fraud.
Former Basketball women star pleaded guilty to 15 felonies, including five counts of misuse of a social security number, four counts of bank fraud, three counts of making false statements to the IRS and three counts of wire fraud, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said a, Eastern District of Missouri in statement.
“Britain Williams is being punished today, not for fraud, but for her celebrity,” Williams’ attorney, Beau Brindley, told PEOPLE. “The court decided to treat her more harshly because of her status as a public figure, instead of treating defendants in a similar situation equally.”
“Mrs. Williams’ success is not a crime subject to harsher penalties. And we will challenge this sentence by all available legal means,” Brindley said.
In addition to the four-year sentence, Williams, 33, will be on supervised release for five years after her release and was ordered to pay $564,069 in restitution.
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Tuesday’s decision follows Brindley’s proposed sentence of 18 months and a pre-sentence report proposal for a sentence of 63 months in prison.
“You knew what you were doing. You knew it was wrong and you did it anyway,” U.S. District Judge Henry Autrey told Williams during a sentencing hearing.
“You’re not just out there for people to watch your party, but for people to watch you. … It’s a big commitment,” Autrey told Riverfront News.
In Williams’ plea agreement, she admitted to falsifying her 2017-2019 tax returns. underreported her income, as well as falsely claiming that her niece and nephew were dependents, which as a result allowed her to avoid paying $29,366 in taxes.
The reality TV star also “fraudulently used Social Security numbers not assigned to her to open accounts with credit card companies and banks,” the US attorney’s office said. Williams failed to pay the accounts she opened, causing various victims to lose $28,537.
The stolen Social Security numbers were also used to commit bank fraud after Williams deposited checks and withdrew money from the victims, prosecutors said. This caused an additional $23,850 in losses.
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The Basketball women The star also filed nine applications for disaster economic injury loans — which were meant to help businesses struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic. Williams falsified her business income, payroll and her criminal history. That resulted in $144,400 in loans, which she then used to finance a lavish lifestyle, according to her plea agreement.
Williams received $52,647 from four loans from the Paycheck Protection Program — used by small businesses seeking funding to cover up to eight weeks of payroll costs including benefits.
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Williams was charged in 2021 and has since applied for California’s COVID-19 rent relief program. She falsely claimed to be a California resident with a gross annual household income of $50,000 and was unable to pay rent due to “reduced hours” due to the pandemic, prosecutors said. She received $27,801.
Since her indictment in 2021, Williams has not filed annual tax returns and listed herself as “exempt” on a form with her former radio station employer. That resulted in no taxes being withheld on her $90,000 salary, according to prosecutors.
In addition, she submitted false medical bills to at least one insurance company, resulting in her, her co-conspirators, or both receiving $139,479.92, prosecutors said.
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Source: HIS Education