Ex-IRS agent gets four years; Select sentence; ticket to jail; and other highlights of recent tax cases.
Sacramento, Calif.: Alena Aleykina, 45, a CPA and a former special agent for IRS Criminal Investigation, has been sentenced to 51 months in prison for filing false returns, obstruction of justice and stealing government money.
According to the evidence, Aleykina, who also holds an MBA, filed six false returns: three personal returns for 2009, 2010 and 2011 and three in the names of trusts she created for years 2010 and 2011. On her personal returns, she fraudulently claimed head of household filing status, listed false dependents and claimed deductions for education expenses to which she was not entitled. Aleykina also obtained a fraudulent legal separation decree from the California Superior Court for Yolo County so that she and her husband could claim undeserved rental real estate loss deductions. On a trust return, she also falsely claimed to be paying wages to her mother and sister to care for her son and father.
Aleykina stole from the IRS’s Tuition Assistance Program, falsely claiming to be taking English classes from a trust registered to her sister and receiving $4,000 in tuition reimbursement.
When criminal investigators approached her to retrieve her government laptop, Aleykina lied to the agents about the location of the laptop and deleted dozens of files from the computer after the agents left.
Loss to the government from Aleykina’s conduct totaled more than $50,000.
Aleykina was also ordered to serve a year of supervised release and to pay $4,000 in restitution to the IRS.
Hialeah, Fla.: Resident Yant Garcia, 38, has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit an offense against the U.S. From about 2012 through 2015, Garcia conspired to launder the proceeds of an ID-theft refund scheme and mortgage fraud scheme by cashing checks in the names of others.
Around 2013, Garcia’s co-conspirators submitted fraudulent federal returns using stolen personal IDs and seeking refunds from $130,000 to $170,000. The Treasury paid out some $4.3 million in fraudulent refunds as a result. Garcia and a co-conspirator met with the owner of a local check-cashing store who agreed to cash these checks for a 30 percent cut.
About two years later, Garcia and his co-conspirators engaged in a mortgage fraud scheme on a property in Miami Beach, submitting fraudulent loan applications and received some $3.7 million from this fraud via interstate wire to the account of the fake title company. Garcia then provided checks to co-conspirators who cashed these checks in South Florida in the names of payees who were not present.
Sentencing is Nov. 14.
Middletown, Conn.: Preparer Eugene Carlin, 58, has pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and tax offenses.
According to court documents and statements in court, on two occasions in July police made controlled purchases of methamphetamine from Carlin. Investigation revealed that for more than a year Carlin worked with others to distribute methamphetamine. Investigation also revealed that Carlin ran a tax prep business from his home and that he helped clients to prepare and file false federal returns.
In 2007, Carlin was convicted in Hartford federal court of tax evasion and aiding in the preparation of false returns and sentenced to a year and a day in prison and six months of home confinement. He also agreed to refrain permanently from preparing returns for other people.
Sentencing is Jan. 16, when he faces a maximum of 43 years in prison. Carlin also agreed to forfeit $100,000, his proceeds from the sale of methamphetamine.
Galva, Ill.: Resident Tony L. Porter, 42, has been sentenced to 46 months in prison for tax evasion.
According to court documents, Porter, who pleaded guilty in March, underreported or failed to report income he received from customers of his paving business in 2009, 2010 and 2011. Rather than deposit customers’ checks, he cashed the checks and failed to report the income on his returns. Porter failed to report $112,439 for 2009, $429,064 for 2010 and $579,261 for 2011, avoiding $384,206 in tax for the three years.
The court ordered that Porter pay $566,571 in taxes and interest to the IRS for tax years 2009, 2010 and 2011. He was also ordered to pay $566,571 in unpaid taxes and interest to the IRS and ordered to serve three years of supervised release following his prison sentence.
Pensacola, Fla.: Preparer Benell English, 57, has been sentenced to 41 months in prison and was ordered to pay $182,877 in restitution to the IRS after being found guilty of preparing false returns.
English, the preparer at Select Tax Service, prepared and filed false federal returns between 2013 and 2017 by fraudulently increasing or decreasing clients’ income to maximize refunds.
In May, a jury convicted English of 18 counts of preparing false returns.
Pasadena, Calif.: A federal court has issued an order that permanently bars preparer Maria Del Consuelo Vazquez, who operated offices in Pasadena as well as elsewhere in California, Colorado and Kansas, from preparing federal income tax returns.
The order also prohibited Vazquez from owning a tax prep business.
Vasquez operated a prep business in Pasadena, Corona and Santa Ana, Calif.; Brighton, Colo.; and Hutchinson, Kans., under a Nevada corporation she called MCV Business Network. In recent years, she filed thousands of returns for clients under her PTIN.
According to a lawsuit filed by federal prosecutors and testimony presented to the court, Vazquez substantially inflated or completely fabricated charitable contributions and unreimbursed employee business expenses to illegally generate federal refunds for her clients or to substantially understate clients’ tax liabilities.
Kansas City, Mo.: Resident Tanisha Williams, 40, has pleaded guilty to a scheme to file fraudulent federal returns resulting in $182,410 in phony refunds.
Williams pleaded guilty to filing a false claim with the IRS and to wire fraud.
According to court documents, Williams participated in a scheme to defraud the IRS by helping in the filing of false income tax returns on behalf of others that claimed undeserved refunds. Williams recruited individuals to file federal income tax returns under their own names and Social Security numbers, and used stolen ID information to file federal income tax returns.
False W-2 information was used to inflate income on returns filed for some of the taxpayers. These fraudulent refunds were then deposited onto pre-paid debit cards where they were withdrawn as cash or the cards used for personal expenses.
Williams will have to pay back the $182,410 as restitution and faces up to 25 years in prison without parole.
Pittsford, N.Y.: Nonprofit executive John Brian Mount, 60, who was convicted of filing a false return, has been sentenced to five months in prison to be followed by five months of home confinement.
Mount was executive director of Regional Area Recreation and Employee Services, a nonprofit in East Rochester, N.Y. The nonprofit provides discounted tickets and services to subscribing companies; Mount received salary and commissions from RARES that he failed to report on his 2010 through 2013 federal returns.
Mount failed to report some $227,835.77 in additional income on his returns, dodging $60,977 in federal taxes.
