BY LIFE
Sentinel Freelance Writer
U. S. District Judge James Moody sentenced 27-year-old Rashia Wilson to 21 years in federal prison on July 16, 2013. A quick Google search shows there has been no shortage of news coverage about Rashia’s tax fraud case, since she was arrested in September 2012. Despite all of the media attention, Rashia said, “I’ve never told my side of the story, until now. A bunch of stuff about my case ain’t right; and I need people to know.”
Rashia is adamant that many things that have headlines across mainstream media about her, like the accusation she acquired $3m-$20M; the picture of her wearing a blonde wig and holding stacks of money; the suggestion that she called herself the “1st Lady Of Tax Fraud” and taunted law enforcement in Facebook posts; her daughter’s supposed $30K birthday party; her possession of a $90K car; and other luxury things, are misrepresentations of the truth, unfounded facts or flat out lies.
Rashia does not deny getting caught up in the tax fraud hustle, but says she never saw anywhere near three million dollars. “The most I might’ve seen was maybe $200K,” Rashia said. “If I had three million dollars, you think my mother would still be living in run down, foreclosed apartments? I would’ve bought her a house. I would’ve bought her a car. She wouldn’t be riding around in a car with no A/C.”
Rashia said one reason the circumstances of her case were exaggerated was to make her look like a key figure in Tampa’s tax fraud scenario is because she can prove IRS employees, their families and their friends are the real tax fraud criminals. “It ain’t gon’ ever stop. IRS employees keep leaking new ways to do it every year,” she said.
Rashia then explained the picture of her holding the stacks of money, and the “1st Lady” title associated with her. I never said I was the 1st Lady Of Tax Fraud,” she said. “I had an entertainment company called 1st Lady Entertainment. That’s where 1st Lady comes from.” Rashia continued, “That picture of me with the blonde wig, holding the money was for a party my company was promoting. It didn’t have nothing to do with tax fraud. It was all dollar bills.” The blue straps, visible in a color copy of the photo, indicate Rashia was holding about thirteen hundred one dollar bills, nothing representative of the millions she’s been convicted of stealing.
As for the narrative that she bragged about tax fraud and immunity from prosecution for it, in posts on her Facebook page. “Who would do that? My Facebook page was hacked into on May 22, 2012, four months before I was indicted. If they would’ve showed the comments and not just the statuses, they would’ve seen I didn’t put that stuff on my page,” Rashia said. It is hardly a far-fetched notion that a Facebook user’s account would be hacked.
The Internet has dozens of tutorials on “How To Hack Facebook Pages,” which are routinely hacked. Pamela Wilson, Rashia’s mother, corroborated her daughter’s story, asserting “I was at the house when somebody hacked into her Facebook; I was there. She was crying when that stuff popped up on the computer.”
Rashia talked about the expensive birthday party and the luxury items that were mentioned in the news, including the car, saying while she could have purchased those things with revenue from 1st Lady Entertainment, which promoted concerts with major acts like: OJ Juiceman, Trina, and Young Dro in ’09, Plies, Yo Gotti, Mystikal and Ace Hood in ’11 and Future in ’12 (the Plies show alone by her count netting her over $100K), most of those things were gifts. About the party she said, “everybody bought stuff for that party,” About her jewelry, “The only jewelry I paid for was my necklace.”
“I was in the entertainment business. People were always paying for this and that. Men bought me stuff.” According to Rashia, the man who purchased the $90K Audi is a Bradenton native, who played for the Philadelphia Eagles, at the time. “He bought the car on May 3, 2012. I wasn’t even in town when he bought it for me and I can prove I was out of town.
In a similar vein, Rashia said there is no proof the evidence used to convict her was in fact tied to her and not her co-defendant, who the Feds were after in the first place.
Rashia says she was convicted not because she is guilty as charged, but because she trusted her defense attorney who she says didn’t fight for her in court. She trusted him so much; he was paid a large sum of money for her defense, up front.
Rashia said, “I feel like he sold me out to the government. He was paid $45K up front to defend me and he didn’t do nothing to defend me. He told me I was guilty and he wasn’t going to trial.”
According to Rashia, $5,000 of that money was for the attorney to hire a computer expert to verify her Facebook account was hacked. That did not happen. Rashia’s mom said, the attorney, “Used the bipolar thing, when he got paid to use a computer expert.”
Rashia expected the attorney to file for an appeal within 14 days of her sentencing. Instead, he withdrew from her case. “This is f*cked up,” Rashia said. “People need to know these people lie. These people lie. People need to know.”
Attempts to interview the attorney were refused by his office that relayed he had no comment about Rashia Wilson.
