A Hawaii couple who built a decade-long tax refund scheme around a single fabricated form were sentenced to federal prison this week, closing out a case that started with one document and ended with years of legal maneuvering to keep money they were never entitled to. Beverly Braumuller-Hawver and Scott Hawver of Ewa Beach falsified an IRS form to manufacture a nearly $200,000 refund, then spent years fighting to keep the government from clawing it back. Part of the money went toward gold and silver coins, a purchase prosecutors cited as evidence of how the couple tried to convert stolen cash into something harder to trace.
The Fabricated 1099 That Produced a $192,845 Refund
From roughly February 2015 through November 2018, the Hawvers paid a series of fees to a promoter in exchange for fraudulent tax paperwork. Armed with that paperwork, they filed an amended 2014 tax return attaching a fabricated IRS Form 1099-MISC that falsely claimed a mortgage company had paid Scott Hawver $749,163 in income and withheld $424,163 of it in federal taxes. The fictitious withholding claim was large enough on its own to trigger a real payout: the IRS issued the couple a refund of $192,845 that they were not entitled to receive. The scheme worked because the withholding figure on a fabricated 1099 looks, on paper, like taxes the filer already paid, which is what let a single document generate a six-figure check instead of raising an immediate flag.
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Sixteen and Twenty-Four Months, Plus $182,438 in Restitution
A federal jury convicted Braumuller-Hawver and Hawver in March 2026 of conspiring to defraud the IRS. The jury also convicted Braumuller-Hawver of filing a false tax return and money laundering. Chief District Judge Derrick K. Watson sentenced Hawver to 16 months in prison and Braumuller-Hawver to 24 months, and ordered the couple to jointly and severally pay $182,438.37 in restitution, according to the Department of Justice. Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division and U.S. Attorney Kenneth M. Sorenson for the District of Hawaii announced the sentences, which followed a trial rather than a negotiated plea.
Gold Coins and a Music LLC: Where the Refund Went
The Hawvers moved quickly once the Treasury check landed. They deposited it into a newly opened bank account, then within days transferred $170,000 of it into a separate account held in the name of BeverlyB Music LLC, an unrelated music business the couple operated. The same day, they paid co-conspirators more than $70,000 out of that account for their roles in the scheme. Braumuller-Hawver later wired $22,000 from the BeverlyB Music account to a jeweler to buy gold and silver coins, part of the paper trail investigators followed after the refund left the couple’s hands and moved through an account with no connection to the fraud itself.
Frivolous Filings the Couple Used to Keep the IRS at Bay
When the IRS began trying to recover the fraudulent refund, the Hawvers did not simply ignore the collection notices. They sent scripted, frivolous correspondence to the agency, filed a petition in U.S. Tax Court to block collection, and joined as plaintiffs in multiple frivolous civil RICO lawsuits against the IRS employees handling their case. That resistance stretched the case out for years after the original 2018 filing, turning one false form into a multi-year legal fight that ended only with the March 2026 conviction and this week’s sentencing. The years of delay are also why the case ended in a jury trial rather than a plea deal, unlike some of the other prosecutions tied to the same scheme.
A Nationwide Scheme That Reached 200 Participants in 19 States
The Hawvers were part of a much larger nationwide tax fraud scheme that drew in more than 200 participants across at least 19 states, the Justice Department said. In Hawaii, the operation was organized by Rosemarie Lastimado-Dradi, who marketed it as the “Escrow Trust Refund” program, recruited clients including the Hawvers, and directed a cut of between 25 and 40 percent of their fraudulent refunds into accounts held under fictitious business names and purported trusts. Lastimado-Dradi was sentenced in January 2026 to nine years in prison. Other Hawaii participants have also been sentenced: Elvah Miranda received 48 months, Marciaminajuanequita Dumlao 33 months, Daniel Miranda 30 months, Brigida Chock 27 months and Lazerrick Lawrence 20 months. Nationally, the scheme’s main promoters were sentenced in 2022 to 11 years, more than 8 years and 51 months in prison.
The Federal Fraud Enforcement Push Behind the Sentencing
The Hawvers’ case is part of a broader federal push against fraud in public programs that the Justice Department has been building out since April 2026, when it created the National Fraud Enforcement Division to concentrate fraud investigations and prosecutions in one unit. IRS Criminal Investigation investigated the Hawvers’ case, and Trial Attorney Megan L. Jones and former trial attorney Sarah A. Kiewlicz of the division’s Tax Section prosecuted it. The division has since stood up a National Fraud Detection Center aimed at taxpayer-funded programs, part of the enforcement apparatus that produced this week’s sentences in a scheme that started more than a decade ago and is only now finishing its way through federal court.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by The Financial Wire editorial team.
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Warren Cohen is a finance writer based in Phoenix, Arizona, covering personal finance topics including credit, banking, and beginner investing. He earned his degree in business administration from Arizona State University and began his career working in consumer finance, where he gained direct experience with lending and credit systems. He now writes for personal finance websites and fintech platforms, focusing on clear, practical content that helps readers make informed financial decisions.
