A Mississippi woman has been sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for knowingly making a false statement on a tax return, federal prosecutors said.

Gena Michelle Hall, 37, of Biloxi, was sentenced Thursday and ordered to pay $231,636 in restitution, U.S. Attorney Darren LaMarca, of the Southern District of Mississippi, said in a news release.

According to documents and information provided to the court, Hall worked at a business in the Gulfport area, known as Tax Pros. Between 2015 and 2019, Hall prepared federal income tax returns for clients that contained one or more materially false entries that caused the IRS to issue inflated income tax refunds to her clients.

Hall also knowingly filed false returns for herself as a taxpayer, LaMarca’s office said. In 2017, she received about $49,000 in tax preparation fees yet she reported none of those fees as income, authorities said.