Date: June 21, 2024 Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov CHICAGO — A Chicago consultant was sentenced today to a year in federal prison for underreporting and failing to file federal income taxes. Annazette Collins of Chicago willfully filed a false individual tax return for the calendar years 2014 and 2015, and willfully failed to file an individual income tax return for the calendar year 2016. Collins also willfully failed to file a corporate income tax return for the calendar year 2016 on behalf of her consulting and lobbying business, Chicago-based Kourtnie Nicole Corp. Prior to operating her consulting business, Collins served in the Illinois General Assembly as a Representative and Senator. A jury earlier this year convicted Collins on federal tax charges. In addition to the prison sentence, U.S. District Judge Jorge L. Alonso ordered Collins to pay $110,852 in restitution. The sentence was announced by Morris Pasqual, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Jason Bushey, Acting Special Agent-in-Charge of the IRS Criminal Investigation Division in Chicago, and Robert W. “Wes” Wheeler, Jr., Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI. The government was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michelle J. Parthum and Amarjeet S. Bhachu. CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.
