Failed election campaign; six-figure salary; online scam; and other highlights of recent tax cases.
Fort Myers, Florida: Wilner Cenecharles has pleaded guilty to six counts of assisting in the preparation of false tax documents and two counts of filing false tax returns.
Cenecharles was a tax preparer for Motivation Tax Financial Services, which operated out of the Excelsior Barber Shop in Naples, Florida. Cenecharles would meet with his clients at the barbershop and prepare their tax returns. On multiple occasions, Cenecharles added false profits or losses from fictitious businesses or included bogus educational credits to generate fraudulent refunds for his clients.
Cenecharles also did not report accurate amounts of gross receipts on his own personal income tax returns and failed to report thousands of dollars in tax preparation fees to the IRS.
Cenecharles faces a maximum penalty of three years in federal prison per count and has agreed to pay more than $65,000 in restitution. A sentencing date has not yet been set.
Hartford, Connecticut: A former Connecticut tax preparer, who now lives in Florida, was sentenced to 18 months behind bars for preparing numerous false tax returns. Diana Miller-Lloyd, 45, of Port Orange, Florida, pleaded guilty to two counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false and fraudulent income tax returns.
Miller-Lloyd, who also goes by "Diana Rabin" and "Diana Lloyd," used to live in Middlefield and ran a tax return preparation business in the state called Lloyd Forenzique & Accounting Services Corp.
She regularly acquired significant federal tax refunds for her clients, many of whom had incomes of over $500,000.
Miller-Lloyd accomplished this by disregarding information provided by her clients and their employers and by falsifying and incorrectly deducting charitable contributions and business expenses such as advertising, repairs and maintenance, travel, meals, utilities, insurance and legal services.
From the 2016 through 2021 tax years, Miller-Lloyd used these fraudulent deductions to get at least $1,062,293 for her clients in either fraudulent refunds or fraudulent reductions on owed tax payments.
The IRS reported fraudulent activity on several of the filed returns before money was paid back, resulting in an actual loss to the government of $472,913.
A judge ordered Miller-Lloyd to pay back restitution of $467,718 to the IRS. She will have her sentence followed by one year of supervised release.
Cleveland: A 45-year-old man who embezzled millions from his employer and a local fraternal police organization — to fund a lavish lifestyle and his election campaign — has been sentenced to prison.
Jonathan Leissler, of Stow, Ohio, has been sentenced to 48 months in prison after pleading guilty in December 2025 to three counts of wire fraud. He was also ordered to serve three years of supervised release after imprisonment and pay $4,421,154.54 in restitution.
In March 2022 Leissler was hired as the chief financial officer for an industrial supply company in Warrensville Heights, Ohio. In this role, he was entrusted to manage payroll, expenditures, accounts payable and company credit cards. However, in his first month on the job — and despite already receiving a six-figure salary — he created fake payroll records to add unauthorized extra money to his paychecks in the form of bonuses, commissions and other payments. It was determined that by November 2024 he stole $3.8 million across 70 pay periods.
While Leissler continued to add unauthorized payments to his paychecks, he was also using the company's credit cards to make donations to his own election campaign in his bid for a seat on the Ohio Senate during the November 2024 general election. He utilized an online fundraising platform to collect more than $700,000 toward his failed election campaign.
Another source of funds Leissler accessed was through a local Fraternal Order of Police organization. While serving as their treasurer, he was issued a debit card and checkbook for the FOP account, which he then used to write checks to himself, withdraw cash and pay his personal credit card bills. Ultimately, he stole more than $50,000 from the FOP on 69 separate occasions. The amount accounted for 80% of the organization's funds which had been earmarked to provide scholarships for the children of police officers.
Leissler used the embezzled funds to live an extravagant lifestyle. He traveled by chartered private planes and bought a vacation property in South Carolina. He also used funds to pay for mortgage payments, credit cards, vehicles, cryptocurrency mining equipment and to start a business.
Knoxville, Tennessee: A Knox County man has been sentenced to prison and ordered to pay back millions to victims of a fraudulent scheme that went on for years.
Kenneth Francis Lee, 55, of Powell, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. He received a 99-month prison sentence and was ordered to pay back $7,022,140.12 in restitution to his victims.
From 2019 to 2024, victims paid Lee what they believed were litigation costs for a legal case that would result in a monetary settlement. In reality, there was no legal case or settlement.
Lee used the money to support his own lifestyle and an online gambling habit. He also conspired with others to transfer the money between multiple bank accounts in order to conceal the source, control and ownership of the stolen funds.
Pensacola, Florida: Sidney Marc Wilson, Jr., 48, of Niceville, Florida, pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud; mail fraud; wire fraud; money laundering; and subscribing to materially false tax returns.
Between 2018 to 2022, Wilson operated an online scheme falsely promising victims returns on investments into his purported sales affiliate programs. Victims invested anywhere between $3,000-$21,000 to be a part of what Wilson claimed would be a way for the victims to make significant amounts of money. However, after the victims mailed or wired the defendant their investments, he simply kept the money for himself or distributed it to his conspirators. The victims did not receive a return on their purported investments, and he evaded calls from the victims when they attempted to confront him about their investments. Through this scheme, he fraudulently obtained millions of dollars from the victims, a portion of which he laundered through real property and cryptocurrency transactions. In addition, the defendant filed false federal income tax returns significantly understating his income for multiple years.
Wilson faces up to 20 years in prison on each of the fraud counts, up to 10 years in prison on each of the money laundering counts, and up to three years in prison for each of the tax crime counts. Wilson also faces the payment of restitution back to the victims.
Sentencing is scheduled for July 20.
Coon Rapids, Minnesota: Billy Felder, of Coon Rapids, has been charged with one count of preparing false or fraudulent property tax refund returns, one count of forgery and two counts of identity theft.
Between July 2020 and February 2025, Felder used forged documents and the identities of multiple individuals to file more than 45 property tax refund returns, directing many of the resulting refunds to bank accounts he controlled. The complaint states that revenue investigators determined the fraudulent returns were filed in the names of 23 individuals, two of whom were dead at the time of filing and another two who reported they did not give consent for the filings. Many of the individuals allegedly had the same last name as Felder, and several were not residing in Minnesota during those tax years or had never resided in Minnesota.
Through his fraudulent actions, Felder allegedly stole more than $41,800 from the state.
Each tax-related charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, a $10,000 fine, or both. The forgery-related felony charge carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison, a $5,000 fine, or both. Each identity theft-related felony charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, a $20,000 fine, or both.
