One Range Rover, two Ferraris; quite a JOLT; live-video app; and other highlights of recent tax cases.
Davenport, Iowa: In Scott County, Iowa, two criminal cases were brought against Latisha Collier, a former "Love After Lockup" cast member who operated Boss Tax and Accounting Services in the Davenport area.
Collier, 39, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for forgery and 15 years for second-degree theft. The sentences will run at the same time, leaving her with a 15-year prison term.
One case involved nearly $9,000 a client gave her for an IRS payment. The other involved a different client's identity, Social Security number, and tax documents being used to obtain a rental home after Collier's own housing application was denied.
Collier pleaded guilty to second-degree theft in the tax-payment case and forgery in the housing case.
One of the cases involved a client who hired Collier to prepare a tax payment. The client provided $8,788 for federal and state tax payments, but Collier kept the money instead of sending it to the IRS and state tax agencies.
The client discovered the problem after the IRS began adding penalties for the unpaid balance. Prosecutors later charged Collier with felony theft after police seized business records and electronic devices.
The forgery case came when Collier applied for housing in March 2024 and was denied, then submitted another application months later for a home in LeClaire using someone else's information.
The application included the client's identification, Social Security number and tax documents. Collier also signed the housing lease with that person's identity.
Wilmington, North Carolina: Angela Dickens, 54, of Rocky Mount pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false tax returns resulting in a tax loss of approximately $3,900,000. Dickens faces a maximum penalty of 36 months in prison when sentenced in November. She has agreed to pay restitution to the IRS.
Dickens operated Empire Tax Service, later renamed K&J Tax Service, in North Carolina. From 2017 to 2023, she and at least one co‑conspirator fraudulently filed hundreds of tax returns by inflating "Other 1099 Withholding" amounts. Their scheme inflated taxpayer refunds and allowed them to take excessive fees from those refunds.
San Jose, California: Uri Raz, co-founder, former CEO and current executive chairman of Tango, a live-video app similar to TikTok, pleaded guilty to felony tax evasion.
The felony tax evasion charge generally applies for amounts greater than $3.5 million in tax loss. The charge includes penalties of a maximum of five years in prison, over $100,000 in fines and three years of mandatory supervised release.
Raz may also face possible immigration consequences such as deportation, as he has renounced his U.S. citizenship. His property, including assets he may own in Israel, the country of his birth, may be subjected to liens to pay the restitution.
In 2000 Raz created an overseas entity called Herodiun Limited in the Republic of Mauritius and connected it to a Swiss bank account. In 2008, he put over $2 million in the account, following a severance agreement.
Raz did not include the $2 million on his 2008 federal tax return, which would have made him responsible for over $600,000 in tax.
The Tango app is a social media platform that streams short, live videos from creators to audiences worldwide, and was valued at over $1 billion in 2016.
Raz stepped down as CEO of the company in 2016 but remained at the company as executive chairman.
The sentencing hearing is scheduled for Nov. 10.
Boston: A former U.S. postal inspector has pleaded guilty to stealing over $340,000 in cash from elderly people, including from one veteran.
Scott Kelley, 52, of Pembroke, Massachusetts, formerly worked at the Boston Division headquarters of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. He admitted to stealing money from packages that elderly victims of lottery fraud scams had mailed.
He then laundered some of that money but failed to report it to the IRS. Between January 2019 and August 2023, Kelley intercepted some 1,950 parcels.
Kelley pleaded guilty to five counts of wire fraud; five counts of mail fraud; five counts of mail theft by a postal officer; 23 counts of money laundering; one count of structuring to evade reporting requirements; and five counts of filing false tax returns.
Prosecutors added that Kelley allegedly used the stolen cash to pay for prostitutes, a pool patio and bar and cruise expenses.
During his work at USPIS, Kelley was the team leader of the mail fraud team — in charge of investigating and disrupting scams that targeted senior citizens and other vulnerable people.
This occurred through USPIS's crime-prevention initiative, Jamaican Operations Linked to Telemarketing, or JOLT, in which USPIS disrupted mail fraud scams originating in Jamaica that targeted U.S. residents with false promises of sweepstakes or lottery winnings. Scammers posed as lottery representatives and persuaded them to mail so-called fees and taxes before supposedly collecting their prizes.
In 2019, Kelley asked to be put on the email distribution list for the daily JOLT Report and requested to have the suspicious parcels intercepted and sent to him. He then opened the intercepted parcels suspected to be part of this fraudulent scheme and stole any money inside them.
Kelley's sentencing is set for Nov. 18.
St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana: Bobbie Ellis, 63, was convicted of wire fraud and tax evasion in a $1.8 million embezzlement case.
Ellis worked at a small law firm in Mandeville from 2010 to 2018, performing duties as an office manager, bookkeeper and paralegal. In those roles, Ellis had access to the law firm's financial records, bank accounts, notary stamp and other legal documents.
From 2012 to 2018, Ellis, without authorization, accessed bank accounts controlled by the law firm and forged her employer's signature on numerous checks, stealing over $1.8 million. Ellis used the fraudulently obtained checks to purchase a home in Georgia and another home in Florida.
Ellis also fraudulently used a credit card linked to her employer. She charged over $945,000 in unauthorized purchases, including expenses related to vacations, hotel stays, retail store purchases, restaurants and purchases for her children and pets.
In total, Ellis embezzled $1,861,575.75 from bank accounts controlled by her employer. From 2013 to 2017, she attempted to evade the income tax due to the IRS based on her legitimate and illegal income. She owes a total of $657,707.
For wire fraud, Ellis faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, up to a $250,000 fine and up to three years of supervised release. For tax evasion, she faces a maximum of five years in prison, up to a $250,000 fine, and up to three years of supervised release.
Miami: A Florida man has pleaded guilty to one count of filing a false tax return and has agreed to pay $34,846,381 in restitution to the IRS.
Daniel Liburdi, 37, of Miami, faces a maximum penalty of three years in federal prison.
Liburdi has also agreed to the civil forfeiture of three properties in Miami Beach and the U.S. Virgin Islands, valued, collectively, at approximately $37,500,000; two Ferraris and one Land Rover Range Rover, valued, collectively, at approximately $1,127,000; and the contents of several financial accounts that total $414,508.49.
Menlo Park, California: Ronald Galatolo was sentenced to eight months in county jail after he was convicted of eight felonies for falsifying financial disclosures and tax filings and failing to properly report income and gifts stemming from his role as the San Mateo County Community College district chancellor.
In addition to eight months in jail, Galatolo will be required to complete two years of probation and complete 100 hours of community service.
Galatolo is facing a maximum sentence of seven years and four months in prison.
Galatolo was chancellor of the San Mateo County Community College District from 2001 to 2019, during which time he oversaw the district's then-three campuses, Cañada College in Woodside, Skyline College in San Bruno, and the College of San Mateo.
During the trial, prosecutors alleged that he took kickbacks from district contractors and went on luxury trips without disclosing them. Some of the charges also stem from allegations involving his personal tax returns, including claiming a donation made by the college on his personal taxes.
New Orleans: Alexa Marie Braud, 34, of Gretna, Louisiana, pleaded guilty to bank theft. Sentencing is set for Oct. 22.
On Feb. 4, 2026, Braud entered a credit union located in Gretna, where she was a bank manager, and took $185,000.
Braud faces a maximum term of 10 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, restitution, up to three years of supervised release, and a $100 mandatory special assessment cost.
Las Vegas: Iris Hondermann was sentenced to 30 months in prison for conspiring to defraud the United States by filing false tax returns with the IRS and diverting portions of the resulting tax refunds to herself and her codefendant.
Hondermann owned and operated Silver State Tax & Multiservices, a tax preparation business in Las Vegas. An individual close to Hondermann worked for the business and was charged in the same scheme. From approximately 2017 through 2021, Hondermann and her codefendant prepared tax returns for clients that included one or more false items, including business profits and losses, COVID-19 sick and family leave credits, and residential energy credits.
Hondermann and her codefendant prepared false tax returns seeking more than $5 million in refunds that their clients were not entitled to receive. At times, Hondermann and her codefendant also diverted portions of client tax refunds to themselves. From 2017 through 2021, they diverted more than $1.1 million to bank accounts one or both of them controlled.
Hondermann pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to defraud the United States. Hondermann's codefendant, who admitted to filing false tax returns for clients as part of the same scheme, still awaits sentencing.
Memphis, Tennessee: A Memphis woman pleaded guilty to helping prepare false tax returns for clients.
Selma Brinson owned and operated a tax preparation business that she used to report false items on clients' tax returns to generate inflated tax refunds. Among other false items, Brinson reported fuel tax credits, claims for residential energy credits and health savings account deductions on client returns. She received hundreds of thousands of dollars in client fees in exchange for preparing returns. In total, Brinson filed false returns that attempted to defraud the IRS out of more than $5.4 million.
Brinson pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and assisting the preparation of a false tax return. She is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 10 and faces a maximum penalty of three years in prison.
