Tax Fraud Blotter: Completely Guilty

A couple of our favorite recent tax fraud cases.

Gloversville, N.Y.: Preparer Carmen Gentile Jr., 53, of Amsterdam, N.Y., has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States and file fraudulent returns.

Gentile, owner and operator of Complete Financial Accounting Services, admitted that from March 2006 through April 2008 he and co-conspirators Angela Witzke and Michele Lennon worked together to prepare and submit to the IRS dozens of tax returns for clients that omitted income and claimed inflated charitable contributions, expenses and losses.

Gentile faces a maximum of five years in prison, a fine of $250,000 and a maximum term of supervised release of three years when he is sentenced on February 17; he may also be ordered to reimburse the government for any tax loss. Both Witzke and Lennon have also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and file fraudulent returns, and both are scheduled to be sentenced on January 14.

Allentown, Pa.: Preparer Wendy Santana will serve 18 months in prison for reporting false information to the IRS to inflate clients’ refunds and to hide her own income, according to published reports. She was also reportedly ordered to pay more than $277,000 in restitution to the government and spend a year under supervision when she is released.

Santana pleaded guilty in May to seven counts, including filing fraudulent tax returns and aiding and abetting the filing of false returns.

According to a court document cited by news outlets, Santana ran the tax prep business from the basement of her home from 2006 to 2009 and charged clients $50 to $100 to prepare tax returns. The document reportedly added that Santana allegedly filed false returns to the IRS between 2007 and 2009. She also allegedly failed to report nearly $106,000 in earnings from the prep business between 2006 and 2009, resulting in a loss of tax revenue to the government of more than $39,000, reports added.

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