Tax Fraud Blotter: Land of the Fee

Some of our favorite recent tax cases.

Trotwood, Ohio: Preparer Zakia Moore, 33, was sentenced to 18 months in prison and three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $212,195 in restitution to the IRS for making false claims for federal refunds.

According to court documents, Moore, who pleaded guilty on February 19 and worked as a preparer at H&R Block in Dayton, Ohio, filed false federal income tax returns on behalf of Block clients or clients referred to her. These returns contained false W-2s or false income amounts on the Schedule Cs. The clients involved did not earn near the amount of income reported on their returns, authorities said, adding that Moore had the individuals pay her a portion of the fraudulent refund as a “fee” for her services of filing the returns.

Moore filed approximately 89 false returns between January 2009 and April 2010, costing the federal government some $212,195.

Miami: A federal court found that an 87-year-old Florida man, Carl Werner, owes the U.S. government civil penalties amounting to 150 percent of the value of his Swiss bank account, the biggest such penalty by percentage on record, his lawyers said. (See our full article.)

Chicago: Former tax preparer Verlean Hollins was sentenced to nearly four years in prison for filing nearly 3,200 false federal income tax returns that claimed refunds totaling more than $3.37 million for clients. He plead guilty in January to two counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false federal income tax returns. (See our full article.)

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