Conservative estimates; weeded out; lack of security; and other highlights of recent tax cases.
Detroit: A federal court has permanently enjoined two tax preparers and their business from preparing returns for others and from owning or operating any prep business in the future.
The civil complaint alleged that Latavia Garrett, Latrina Hall and their company, Detroit Tax Solution, prepared fraudulent federal income tax returns. According to the complaint, defendants filed fraudulent federal returns that included reporting false income and expenses from fictitious businesses; falsely claiming eligibility for Child Tax Credits and education credits; falsely claiming dependents to increase the Earned Income Tax Credit; using false reported prior-year earned income to increase eligibility for tax credits; and underreporting wage income. Hall also allegedly acted as a ghost preparer.
The IRS has "conservatively estimated" that the schemes caused a combined loss to the U.S. exceeding $1.2 million.
The defendants consented to entry of the injunction, which permits the U.S. to monitor compliance. The order requires that defendants send notice of the injunction to each person for whom they and their company prepared federal returns, amended returns or claims for refund after Jan. 1, 2019, and that they post an electronic copy of the injunction on any business social media profile currently maintained or created over the next five years.
Tampa, Florida: Steven Brickner has been sentenced to a year and a day in prison for filing a false 1040 for 2017.
He defrauded investors in various companies that he claimed were involved in the business of marijuana cultivation and distribution. He convinced investors to invest money in various enterprises but used most of the money for personal uses and to purchase high-end collector automobiles.
Brickner, who previously pleaded guilty, earned more than $1,055,503 in income in 2017 from the above activity that he did not report on his individual income tax returns for that year. He caused a loss to the IRS of $172,164.39.
The court also imposed a $7,500 fine.
In 2021, Brickner was also ordered to disgorge more than $2.4 million to the victims after the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit.
McAllen, Texas: Tax preparer Linda Lopez has been sentenced to three years in prison to be followed by a year of supervised release after being convicted of preparing false and fraudulent returns.
Lopez, who previously pleaded guilty, owned and operated Premier Tax Solutions, which operated from 2012 through 2022. She admitted that she prepared a federal return for a taxpayer that included multiple instances of false and fraudulent information, including false employee business expenses and false residential energy credit qualifying expenses.
Las Vegas: Anthony Uvari has been convicted for executing a withholding scheme in an attempt to obtain nearly $1 million in refunds through the filing of fraudulent returns for himself and his companies.
Between February 2012 and May 2013, he filed or caused to be filed four returns that falsely claimed six different businesses had paid him or his companies income but withheld more than $900,000 of income tax on his behalf and paid it to the IRS. Evidence showed that he had filed individual income tax returns for 2007 to 2010 with the same pattern of using false withholdings to claim fraudulent refunds.
He requested from the IRS more than $900,000 in fraudulent income tax refunds; the IRS paid out more than $300,000 before detecting Uvari's scheme and denying the remaining refund requests.
On his 2011 individual income tax return, he claimed nearly $600,000 in withholdings from purported winnings on horse racing from off-track betting organizations, but the IRS had no record of these winnings or withholdings. Four witnesses said that two of the betting organizations were not in business at the time of the claimed wagers and withholdings, and two others had no records of the bets claimed during the relevant period.
Uvari also filed three returns on behalf of two shell companies he controlled, claiming hundreds of thousands of dollars of withholdings from a Canadian bank. A bank representative testified that the bank had not conducted these financial transactions with Uvari or his companies, had not made these payments to Uvari or his companies, and had not withheld this income tax.
Uvari was found guilty of four counts of making and subscribing false returns. Sentencing is March 8. For each count, he faces a maximum of three years in prison, a term of supervised release and a fine.
Germantown, Maryland: Security guard Gaston Gilberto Reyes has been convicted of tax evasion.
Reyes did not file federal income tax returns for 2015 through 2020, failing to report more than $1.15 million in total wages during this time from employment at eight security firms in the Washington, D.C., area. He also submitted false W-4s to his employers on which he claimed he was exempt from federal income tax withholding.
Reyes did not pay some $200,000 in income tax over the six years.
Sentencing is Feb. 21, when he will face up to five years in prison on each of six charges of tax evasion. He also faces a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties.
Chicago: Tax preparer Eunice Salley has been sentenced to seven years in prison for embezzling her deceased grandmother's pension checks and preparing false returns for clients.
In 2016 and 2017, Salley prepared and filed 22 false federal returns on behalf of clients. The returns reported fictitious wages and withholdings, as well as false medical, charitable and employment related expenses. In addition to charging her clients a prep fee, Salley also demanded that some clients pay her as much as half of the refund.
In total, the 22 false returns sought more than $1 million in fraudulent refunds.
Salley's grandmother died in 2009 after working for and earning a pension with American Can Co. After Salley's grandmother died, the monthly pension checks continued to be delivered to the residence where Salley lived: From January 2013 to December 2017, American Can sent 33 pension checks, totaling $14,131, to the grandmother. Salley deposited these checks into one of six bank accounts she controlled. On several occasions during this period, she notarized and submitted to the pension plan administrator affidavits under her grandmother's name, fraudulently affirming that her grandmother was still alive.
In 2017, Salley did not report to the IRS some $5,000 in income she received from the embezzled pension checks.
Salley, who was
Austin, Texas: Accountant Steven Marquez has pleaded guilty to embezzlement and filing a false return.
He embezzled more than $700,000 from his employer, an Austin-based company where he worked as an accountant and cash manager. From at least April 2010 through October 2017, Marquez, without authorization, caused funds to be transferred from the company's bank accounts into an account he controlled. He used some of this money to pay his credit card bills and other personal expenses and then altered the company's bank statements.
Marquez also filed a 2017 return that did not report the embezzled money.
Sentencing is March 9. Marquez faces a maximum of 20 years in prison for wire fraud and three years for filing a false return. He also faces a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties.
