Shirley Oyer pleads guilty in tax-fraud scheme
Shirley Oyer, a Kansas City woman facing federal charges for her alleged role in a nationwide tax-fraud scheme, pleaded guilty Thursday morning to a single charge of filing false claims for tax refunds. Five other charges were dropped as part of the plea agreement. According to the plea, Oyer will be sentenced to six months in prison, six months of house arrest and three years of probation.
Oyer, 71, and her sons, one who claims that he’s the second coming of the prophet John the Baptist, were profiled in The Pitch earlier this summer.
The fraud that Oyer was part of operated as a tax-preparation business out of a Blue Springs karate studio owned by co-defendant Gerald Poynter II, aka Brother Jerry Love. Oyer was accused of recruiting clients by telling them that they could claim tax refunds from the IRS in the amount of their total debt, including student loans and mortgages. Fourteen people from around the country were charged in the scheme, which was the largest of its kind in Missouri history.
