An Alabama woman was sentenced today to prison for embezzling from her employer and filing false tax returns, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Louis V. Franklin, Sr. for the Middle District of Alabama.

According to court documents, from February 2007 through May 2014, Alita Baker Edeker, a resident of Valley, Alabama, embezzled $700,000 of her employer’s funds by diverting payments from clients of the company to debit and credit cards she controlled. Edeker made false entries in the company’s books and records in order to conceal her embezzlement. After embezzling the funds, Edeker willfully filed false tax returns for tax years 2011, 2012, and 2013 that did not report the money.

In addition to the term of imprisonment imposed, Edeker was ordered to serve three years of supervised release and to pay restitution in the amounts of $819,497.29 to her employer and $101,604 to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman and United States Attorney Franklin commended special agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation, and the Auburn, Alabama Police Department, who investigated the case, and Assistant United States Attorney Ben Baxley and Trial Attorney Grace Albinson of the Tax Division, who prosecuted the case.

Additional information about the Tax Division and its enforcement efforts may be found on the division’s website.