On Friday, U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart sentenced former Utahn Marissa Hyde to three months incarceration and three months of home confinement for telling clients of her tax preparation business how to cheat the Internal Revenue Service. The judge also ordered her to pay a $5,000 fine.

"This is not a small matter," the judge said in rejecting a defense request to sentence Hyde to probation.

Hyde, 43, who now lives in Overland Park, Kan., and is studying to be a nurse, said she wants to be a productive citizen again and apologized for her actions. She had pleaded guilty in August to one count of attempting to interfere with the administration of IRS laws.

"I recognize that what I did was wrong," she said. "It was very poor judgment on my part."

After quitting the IRS, allegedly because she was tired of being on the "bad side" and wanted to help taxpayers, Hyde set up Accounting and Business Consulting in Layton with other partners.

In a plea bargain, she admitted to participating in a scheme in 2000 and 2001 that set up foreign trusts as a way to evade federal income taxes. Prosecutors say she used her previous employment to make the scam appear legitimate.

They say that in March 2000, Hyde helped two undercover IRS agents and their fake corporation set up one of these trusts. In addition, she proposed that the agents market the scam to their clients, according to prosecutors.

Court documents allege that Hyde told the agents the fraud would go undetected and said, "I'm never going to report you to the IRS . . . you can take my word for it."

Nicholas Dickinson, of the U.S. Department of Justice, said at Friday's sentencing that the former agent was trying to help the undercover agents avoid paying taxes on $500,000 in capital gains. Hyde, who also filled out false federal and state returns that claimed a fraudulent $50,000 business expense, was paid $5,000 for her efforts, he said.

Another defendant has pleaded guilty in the scheme and is awaiting sentencing. Trial is pending for two others accused of being co-conspirators.

pmanson@sltrib.com