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Woman Uses Hawaiian Princess In Alleged IRS Fraud

IRS Says Woman Claimed $2.1M In Tax Refunds

POSTED: 7:03 pm HST April 26, 2004
UPDATED: 9:33 am HST April 27, 2004

A woman pretending to be Hawaii's Princess Abigail Kawananakoa (pictured, right) tricked the Internal Revenue Service into sending her $2.1 million in tax refunds. The IRS has recovered most of the money, but is suing Abigail Roberts to recover the rest.

Abigail KawananakoaThe woman who almost pulled the scheme off lives in Chester, Penn. Roberts works in a college cafeteria, cleaning tables and refilling salt and peppershakers.

She's originally from Hawaii and told a Philadelphia news reporter she honestly believes she is a Hawaiian princess.

Roberts used the real Abigail Kawananakoa's Social Security number to get a refund check from money Kawananakoa had deposited to cover her own estimated taxes.

"The bottom line is a return was filed reflecting the social security number apparently of the correct princess and therefore the IRS issued the refund check. The system not perceiving anything different, issued the refund check," said IRS spokesman Bill Cressman.

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Kawananakoa's attorney said she has been advised by the IRS not to comment because Roberts (pictured, left) is under investigation by federal agencies.

The IRS said an erroneous tax refund of this magnitude is very rare.

"If there is someone who is deliberately trying to thwart the system, we are vigilant against that but, we certainly cannot catch or recognize every instance of that," Cressman said.

The IRS has recovered $1.9 million of the money from Roberts and is suing to recover the rest.

Roberts used a million dollars of the refund to open a brokerage account and was trying to send a $100,000 to her son, Brennen Roberts, in Ewa Beach, is a convicted criminal.

Incidentally, Abigail Roberts and her husband, James, a disabled sandblaster, last year listed an annual income of only $4,700.
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