Mecklenburg Non-Profit Executive Director Found Guilty in State Tax Case

A Mecklenburg County Executive Director for the nonprofit, A Place for Heroes was found guilty Friday, May 29, on two felony counts of Obtaining Property by False Pretenses resulting from a state tax case that was investigated by the Criminal Investigations Division of the North Carolina Department of Revenue.

Superior Court Judge S. Thomas Currin, II, sentenced Terri Lynette Howard, 68, of Lancaster, South Carolina, to two consecutive sentences for a total of seventy-nine to one hundred-seventeen months. These sentences were suspended for a period of 60 months of supervised probation.  As conditions of probation, Howard was ordered to complete 90 days in custody of the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction and was ordered to pay $217,817.44 in restitution over the period of her probation. In addition, Howard was prohibited from being a fiduciary or managing finances of any NC corporation or nonprofit.

Information presented during trial showed that Howard unlawfully obtained sales tax refunds of approximately $217,817.44 from the North Carolina Department of Revenue by filing fraudulent Forms E-585, Nonprofit and Governmental Entity Claim for Refund State, County, and Transit Sales & Use Taxes.  The sales tax claim for refund periods included July 1, 2018 through December 31, 2018, and January 1, 2019 through June 30, 2019.  Howard purported approximately $217,817.44 in sales tax was paid by the nonprofit, A Place for Heroes, and fraudulently filed the claims on Forms E-585, which caused the North Carolina Department of Revenue to send sales tax refunds to A Place for Heroes, which they were not legally entitled to receive.