Scenes from an Italian restaurant; blue Hawaii; you're gonna be soooory; and other highlights of recent tax cases.
Malden, Massachusetts: Tax preparer Yves Isidor, of Somersville, Massachusetts, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for filing false returns for clients.
Isidor owned and operated Tax Realty Pro, a tax preparation service. From 2012 to 2019, he prepared more than 1,500 returns for taxpayers, falsified returns for unsuspecting clients by preparing fraudulent schedules that claimed inappropriate expenses or deductions. On multiple occasions, Isidor inflated clients' total itemized deductions by fabricating medical expenses, charitable contributions, employment expenses, and taxes. On a few occasions, he inflated expense deductions when clients were self-employed or owned rental properties.
Isidor caused a loss to the United States of $443,000.
He was also ordered to serve a year of supervised release.
Wilmington, Delaware: Domenico Mazzella, owner and operator of a local Italian restaurant, has pleaded guilty to a multiyear scheme to evade taxes.
Mazzella pleaded guilty to four counts of tax evasion and 12 counts of failure to collect, account for and pay over trust fund taxes.
From at least 2017 through 2020, Mazzella defrauded the IRS by failing to pay required employment taxes; he instead paid employees entirely in cash and concealed this from his tax preparer. Mazzella also attempted to evade a substantial portion of his personal income tax by diverting more than $600,000 from the business' bank accounts to his personal account, falsely characterizing the payments as reimbursements for business expenses. His overstatement of expenses caused his tax preparer to underreport the restaurant's income, which in turn caused Mazzella's personal income to be substantially underreported.
He has agreed to pay $549,370.39 in restitution to the IRS. He faces up to five years in prison for each of the 16 counts of conviction.
Honolulu: Four individuals from Hawaii have been convicted for their roles in a tax refund fraud scheme.
From at least January 2015 through September 2018, Rosemarie Lastimado-Dradi, Marciaminajuanequita Dumlao, Elvah and Daniel Miranda conspired to defraud the U.S. by filing fraudulent individual returns and other documents that reported false withholdings from mortgage lenders and then claimed substantial refunds from the IRS. After processing the false returns, the IRS issued refunds totaling more than $1 million.
To prevent the IRS from recovering the fraudulently obtained refunds, the conspirators created trusts, opened new bank accounts in the names of business entities and the trusts, and transferred the proceeds between the accounts to conceal them from the government.
Lastimado-Dradi, Dumlao and Elvah Miranda also laundered the money through a series of bank transactions. Dumlao and Daniel Miranda also each filed for bankruptcy and made false statements about their respective bankruptcy proceedings.
All defendants were found guilty of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. Lastimado-Dradi, Dumlao and Elvah Miranda were also guilty of money laundering. Daniel Miranda and Dumlao were found guilty of making false statements under oath in a bankruptcy proceeding.
Elvah Miranda was also found guilty of filing a false return and Lastimado-Dradi was found guilty of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false returns.
Dumlao was acquitted of filing a false return and four money laundering counts. Daniel Miranda was acquitted on one count of filing a false return.
Lastimado-Dradi and Dumlao are scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 26. Elvah Miranda and Daniel Miranda are scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 27. They all face a maximum five years in prison for conspiracy to defraud the U.S. Lastimado-Dradi, Dumlao and Elvah Miranda each face a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison for each count of money laundering.
Elvah Miranda faces a maximum of three years for filing a false return. Lastimado-Dradi faces a maximum penalty of three years in prison for each count of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false returns. Daniel Miranda and Dumlao each face a maximum of five years in prison for each count of making false statements under oath in a bankruptcy proceeding.
Washington, D.C: The IRS Office of Professional Responsibility has released its disciplinary actions, which are also published in the Internal Revenue Bulletin. Published sanctions include censure, suspension or disbarment from practice before the Internal Revenue Service.
The listed individuals have recently been disciplined.
- California: Barjinderjit Singh, CPA, Benecia; censure, suspension or disbarment from practice before the IRS indefinite from Aug. 15, 2025.
- Colorado: Stephen Baird, attorney, Englewood; indefinite from Sept. 30, 2024.
- Iowa: Kimberly S. Sweet, EA, Atkins; indefinite from Sept. 9, 2025.
- Kansas: Troy D. Renkemeyer, Leawood, CPA/attorney; indefinite from July 7, 2025. Mark G. Ayesh, CPA/attorney; indefinite from June 21, 2023.
- New Jersey: James H. Benkoil, CPA, Avon by the Sea; indefinite from Aug. 1, 2025. Jack M. Sardis, CPA, Englewood Cliffs; indefinite from Aug. 1, 2025.
- Tennessee: Jonathan D. Frost, CPA, Signal Mountain; indefinite from Sept. 1, 2024.
- Virginia: Roger L. Guilliams, CPA, Alexandria; indefinite from Sept. 30, 2024.
- John Z. Zhong, CPA, EA, Chino Hills, California; reinstated to practice before the IRS effective July 16, 2025.
Dallas: Business owner Heaven Marie Diaz, convicted at trial of failing to pay over employment taxes that she withheld from her employees, was sentenced to 97 months in prison and ordered to pay $799,033.47 in restitution.
Diaz was the owner and CEO of Pursuit of Excellence, a staffing company. From 2015 to 2017, she withheld payroll taxes from her employees' paychecks but failed to remit more than $3 million to the IRS. Former employees and her former accountant testified that they repeatedly warned her about her obligation to pay employment taxes.
Despite those warnings, she continued to withhold the taxes and kept the funds in her company's bank accounts. Evidence showed she used those funds to cover personal expenses, including international travel, luxury goods and the $10,000 monthly rent on a home.
