Some of our favorite recent tax fraud cases.
Heber City, Utah: CPA Dick Reid Jenkins has been sentenced to 78 months in prison and three years of supervised release, and been ordered to pay $250,340 in restitution to the IRS for filing false claims for income tax refunds and for filing a fictitious financial instrument.
In June, Jenkins was convicted of 18 counts of filing false claims for refunds and one count of presenting a fictitious financial instrument to the U.S. According to the superseding indictment and the proof at trial, in September 2008 Jenkins filed a false individual return for himself for tax year 2007 that claimed a refund of $402,920. The following month Jenkins filed a false amended 2004 individual return that claimed a refund of $434,261. Both claims were based on a falsified 1099-OID.
From September 2008 through February 2009, he also caused 16 other false federal individual returns to be filed on behalf of other individuals. These returns also used false 1099-OIDs and claimed refunds totaling $8,407,623. Additionally, according to the superseding indictment and the proof at trial, on June 30, 2008, Jenkins presented a false and fictitious financial instrument to the U.S. Department of the Treasury in the amount of $300 million.
Chesapeake, Va.: Preparer Tracie Edwards, 42, has received 18 months in prison and been ordered to pay restitution for defrauding the IRS of $109,999, according to published reports.
She reportedly pleaded guilty in June to aiding in the production of 30 fraudulent returns. According to U.S. District Court documents cited in reports, Edwards filed the returns for tax years 2011 and 2012 after collecting client information to calculate an accurate refund, then adding false information to inflate the figure and directing the IRS to send most of the gains to her bank account.
St. Paul, Minn.: Preparer Olufemi Augustine Badejo, 44, has reportedly pleaded guilty to eight counts of filing fraudulent claims for refunds of Minnesota property taxes while running a tax prep business.
According to published reports, the FBI started investigating Badejo, who is also a financial worker with his local county government’s Human Services Department, in May 2012 because of reports that he filed returns on behalf of people without their knowledge, forged signatures and had refunds wired directly into his own bank account.
Investigators reportedly found that Badejo submitted at least 28 claims in others’ names for Minnesota property tax refunds. The complaint also said that several refund claims were filed without the knowledge or signatures of the taxpayers, and some included a forged landlord signature on a Certificate of Rent Paid, according to reports.
Badejo redirected more than $20,000 of clients’ refunds into his bank account, according to a cited news release from the local county attorney’s office.
Sentencing is in January, reports added.
