Carcaught; a big shank; this order's definitely to go; and other highlights of recent tax cases.
Muskogee, Oklahoma: Michael Anthony Houser, formerly of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, has been sentenced to 70 months in prison for one count of theft of federal funds and three years for one count of tax fraud, to be served concurrently.
Between July 2016 and February 2024, while manager for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation Gaming Operations Authority Board, he embezzled and obtained by fraud $24,907,436.07. He also failed to disclose the stolen income for filing federal income taxes, causing a loss to the U.S. in 2016 through 2022; in tax year 2022 he also failed to report $7,851,027,28 in income.
In total, his false filings deprived the U.S. Treasury of $8,205,834.
Houser, who pleaded guilty earlier this year, was also ordered to pay $17,337,949.50 in restitution to the Muscogee Nation and $8,205,834 to the IRS.
Pembroke, New Hampshire: Business owner Michael Kirouac has pleaded guilty to fraudulently obtaining more than $1 million of federal CARES Act funds.
Kirouac owned or controlled four companies: HK Manchester, HK Loudon, HK Hudson and HK Pelham. He applied for and obtained more than $1 million in economic injury disaster loans for the companies, certified that he would use the money solely as working capital and not for personal expenses or to relocate the businesses from one location to another.
Beginning in 2021, Kirouac looked to purchase a golf course. He was unable to obtain financing from banks and private lenders and instead obtained EIDLs on behalf of HK Manchester and HK Loudon. Kirouac used some $600,000 of loan funds intended for HK Manchester and HK Loudon to help purchase the Angus Lea Golf Course in Hillsborough, New Hampshire. Kirouac also misused EIDL funds he obtained for HK Pelham.
Separately, Kirouac obtained a $260,500 EIDL for HK Hudson. He had already agreed to sell Hudson to a third party when he signed for the loan and did disclose that fact to the SBA.
The charge of wire fraud provides for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000, or twice the gross gain or loss, whichever is greater.
Sentencing is Jan. 15.
Maylene, Alabama: Chiropractor Gary Forrest Edwards has been sentenced to 78 months for tax evasion and for interfering with the administration of the internal revenue laws.
Edwards, who previously pleaded guilty, admitted that from 2015 to 2023 he tried to evade payment of more than $2.5 million in income taxes and obstructed IRS efforts to collect those taxes.
He owned and operated the chiropractic practice Hoover Health & Wellness Center, and in 2015 agreed to and did file delinquent federal income tax returns for 2009 through 2013. (He later filed an income tax return for 2017.) Despite eventually filing the returns and reporting millions of dollars in taxable income, Edwards never paid the more than $2.5 million in taxes that he admitted he owed, or the nearly $1.9 million in penalties and interest assessed by the IRS.
Edwards admitted several ways he evaded payment of his taxes and obstructed collection, including hiding financial accounts from the IRS, transferring funds from accounts he owned to accounts in only his spouse's name, filing false court documents to terminate federal tax liens against his property and lying to IRS investigators, among others.
Philadelphia: Tax preparer James J. Sirleaf, of Darby, Pennsylvania, has been sentenced to year and a day of imprisonment and a year of supervised release for engaging in a multiyear scheme to assist clients with filing false income tax returns to fraudulently inflate refunds, and filing false personal income tax returns for himself.
In May, Sirleaf
He was the sole owner and operator of the tax preparation firm Metro Financial Services, where he prepared false and fraudulent 1040s for clients from at least 2016 through 2019. Sirleaf included falsities on the returns — including false deductions, fabricated business expenses and phony dependent information — that reduced clients' taxes. He also filed false returns for himself for tax years 2017 through 2019, failing to fully report his income.
The tax loss totaled $219,622, which he was ordered to repay as well as an $1,800 special assessment.
Cheyenne, Wyoming: Restaurateur Shu Ping Chen has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for filing a false return.
Chen owned and operated China Buffet restaurant, where she was responsible for the restaurant's day-to-day operations and financial reporting. From at least 2018, Chen knowingly provided false financial information to her CPA, fully aware that the tax preparer would use this information to prepare and file her returns.
For tax years 2018 through 2022, Chen underreported the restaurant's gross cash receipts; the underreported amount over the five years totaled $959,693.94, resulting in a tax loss of $293,270 to the IRS and $66,426 to the State of Wyoming.
In January, IRS investigations searched both Chen's restaurant and her residence. During the search, Chen was caught attempting to destroy business records.
Chen, who pleaded guilty in August, was also ordered to pay $293,270 in restitution to the IRS and $66,426 to the State of Wyoming, a $75,000 fine and $35,000 for prosecution costs.
Sellersburg, Indiana: Tax preparer Anita Marie Rodriguez Perez has been sentenced to 18 months in prison, to be followed by two years of supervised release, after pleading guilty to five counts of aiding in the preparation of false returns.
Between 2021 and 2023, Perez owned and operated the area tax prep business ChuliTodo. Among other schemes, she submitted returns containing fabricated Schedules C, falsely claiming the taxpayers operated businesses that incurred significant net losses. (None of the taxpayers had operated a business during the periods.) Additionally, many of the fraudulent returns included inflated Schedule A deductions, particularly for medical and dental expenses, creating and inflating refunds.
Between 2020 and 2022, Perez prepared and filed some 463 fraudulent returns, resulting in a tax loss of $1,575,250.
She was also ordered to pay $1,954,673.30 in restitution.
Kingsport, Tennessee: Aylissa Glidewell has been sentenced to 50 months in prison for conspiring to commit wire and mail fraud.
She conspired to file false returns seeking refunds based on the Employee Retention Credit and the Sick and Family Leave Credit. Glidewell and her conspirators created businesses, which lacked any employees or operations, to falsely claim the credits. Glidewell filed numerous false returns for those businesses and directed the refunds to addresses she and conspirators controlled.
In total, the returns claimed more than $3.4 million in refunds, of which the IRS paid $1.8 million.
Glidewell, who
