Former CPA Gets Prison Sentence for Stealing Identities of Dead Children to Evade Taxes

A former CPA and tax attorney has been sentenced to 57 months in prison and ordered to pay $2.2 million in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service for stealing the identities of deceased children.

Lloyd Irving Taylor was sentenced Monday by U.S. District Court Judge Michael Anello in San Diego. A jury had previously convicted Taylor of 19 felony charges, including aggravated identity theft, false statements to a financial institution, tax evasion, corrupt interference with the IRS, and making false statements on United States passport applications. Taylor has been in custody since his arrest in San Diego in April 2013.

Taylor allegedly stole the identities of deceased children and used them as aliases to obtain fraudulent passports and other identification documents. He then used the passports (which he obtained from U.S. embassies throughout Europe) and other fraudulent documents to open and maintain multiple financial accounts so that he could hide his income and assets from the IRS. Taylor also misused the stolen identities to transfer funds between his nominee accounts, and to purchase various assets, such as gold coins, which he used to evade taxes, according to prosecutors.

Similarly, Taylor fabricated over a dozen fraudulent religious institutions, and opened 31 related bank and investment accounts in the names of these fake churches. He then misused the tax-exempt status of these fake religious institutions to fraudulently claim that his income was not subject to federal taxes. Following a week-long trial in June 2014, the jury deliberated for just 30 minutes before finding the defendant guilty on all counts.

Among the witnesses who testified at Taylor’s trial was the brother of one of the deceased victims whose identity was stolen, along with a blind elderly woman whose Social Security number was stolen and misused by Taylor. The jury also saw the $1.6 million worth of gold coins that he had hidden in a storage locker prior to the execution of a search warrant.

Despite working and earning money for over 40 years, Taylor filed federal tax return only seven times. All told, Taylor failed to report approximately $5 million in income, on which he owed the IRS approximately $1.6 million.

“Identity theft is a dangerous crime that not only traumatizes the unsuspecting victims and their family members, but also facilitates the commission of further criminal activity,” U.S. Attorney Laura E. Duffy said in a statement. “For years, Lloyd Taylor stole the identities of deceased children and travelled internationally to obtain fraudulent identification documents. Far from living up to his obligation to be an officer of the court and trusted financial advisor, Mr. Taylor took advantage of his victims to line his pockets and avoid paying his taxes.”

Duffy praised the efforts of the San Diego Regional Fraud Task Force, working with the IRS and State Department, to uncover Taylor’s criminal activities and bring him to justice.

“Mr. Taylor, a tax professional, tried in every conceivable way to avoid paying his taxes—from using the identities of dead children and fake churches to converting income to gold coins,” said IRS Criminal Investigation special agent in charge Erick Martinez. “Today’s sentence reinforces our commitment to every American taxpayer to investigate and prosecute those who use the identities of others to evade their tax obligations.”

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