Mother, daughter plead guilty in $1.5 million fraud scheme

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - A St. Joseph woman and her daughter pleaded guilty in a $1.5 million tax fraud scheme and an individual tax fraud.

Federal prosecutors say 59-year-old Dawn Langlais pleaded guilty Friday to failing to pay employee payroll taxes to the IRS. Her 38-year-old daughter, Jennifer Sturgis, pleaded guilty to making false statements on a tax return.

Langlais helped operate a home health care provider called Homeward Bound and Silver Linings from 2001 to 2013. Her daughter and other relatives worked at the business.

The company withheld federal taxes and did not send those taxes to the IRS. It also withheld from employee paychecks and kept child support payments, employee IRA contributions, and medical and dental insurance payments.

The two also admitted they didn’t report income on their federal income tax forms.