Three sisters from the Rio Grande Valley were sentenced to federal prison for their roles in a conspiracy to "aid and assist in the preparation of filing fraudulent tax returns to the IRS," according to U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani.

Hamdani said Maria Lourdes Campos and her sisters, Elizabeth Romo and Gloria Romo, pleaded guilty May 2. Campos was sentenced to three and a half years in prison. Elizabeth was sentenced to three years and Gloria was sentenced to one-year of supervised release.

Campos was ordered to pay $151,741 in restitution, respectively; Elizabeth was ordered to pay $119,793 and Gloria was ordered to pay $9,528, according to Hamdani. Campos and Elizabeth will also serve three years of supervised release following their prison terms.

Hamdani said the court heard additional testimony on details about the "systematic nature of the tax fraud" at Campos Tax Service. Employees, "without explicit instruction, perpetuated inflated and fraudulent tax returns."

Campos orchestrated the scheme throughout the years and enjoyed "the financial spoils," including purchasing luxury vehicles and expanding her business, according to Hamdani.

He said Campos was the owner and operator of Campos Tax Service for over 10 years and her sisters, Elizabeth and Gloria, were also employees.

Hamdani said with the sisters' assistance, most of the clients fraudulently applied for and claimed residential energy credits, business expenses or childcare credits. Employees did this to earn larger tax refunds for its clients.

Once employees completed the tax returns, they did not review the documents with their clients and only provided refund amounts or incomplete documents, according to Hamdani.

He said from 2018 to 2020, Campos Tax Service filed 6,501 federal income tax returns which included over $5 million of residential energy credits. The false and fraudulent filings between Campos, the resulted in a total sustained tax harm of $3,672,472.

The sisters were permitted to remain on bond and voluntarily surrender to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility.