Two of our favorite recent tax fraud cases.
Santa Rosa, Calif.: Preparer Efrain Arturo Jovel, 64, has pleaded guilty to filing two false returns and failing to report his financial interest in foreign bank accounts.
According to the plea agreement, Jovel owned and operated a tax prep business for more than 30 years, first out of his home then out of local offices. On average, he prepared approximately 1,800 returns per year. Jovel admitted that for the tax years 2009 and 2010, he filed personal U.S. income tax returns that were false in that he did not disclose his foreign bank accounts in Guatemala and El Salvador, nor did he disclose interest income of $35,104 earned in 2009 and 2010 on the funds held in these accounts.
Jovel additionally admitted that he willfully under-reported gross receipts from his tax prep service of $244,120 and $307,846, resulting in a tax loss of $175,023.
Jovel was charged on September 9 with one count of willfully violating foreign bank account reporting requirements and two counts of subscribing to false tax returns. He pleaded guilty to all counts.
Sentencing is January 20, when he faces a maximum of three years in prison and a fine of $250,000 for filing a false return and a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for willfully violating foreign bank account reporting requirements.
San Antonio: A federal court has permanently barred preparer John Andrew Cardenas and his business, Cardenas Income Tax Service, from preparing federal returns for others.
The complaint alleged that Cardenas, who consented to the civil injunction order, individually and through his business in Uvalde, Crystal City, Kingsville and Corpus Christi, Texas, prepared federal returns for clients using fraudulent Schedule C businesses to inappropriately reduce federal tax liabilities.
The suit alleges that the federal tax loss may exceed $900,000.
Cardenas previously pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and abetting the preparation of a false and fraudulent return.
