A federal court has permanently barred two Louisiana residents from preparing federal tax returns for others. The court in the Middle District of Louisiana has permanently barred Cynthia Peters and Melissa Edwards after finding that the women and their business, Jasmine's and Melissa's Tax Service, prepared returns that fabricated income and created bogus losses and expenses so that their customers would qualify for the earned income credit.

The Baton Rouge-based preparers also allegedly manufactured bogus losses and expenses for fictitious businesses so that their customers could claim larger refunds. Their actions cost the government more than $7 million. Peters was sentenced to 27 months in prison and ordered to pay $76,908 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service, and Edwards was sentenced to 30 months in prison and ordered to pay $56,040 in restitution to the IRS.