Tax fraud

Happy Asker, the founder of a pizza chain based in Farmington Hills, Mich., that operated restaurants throughout Michigan, Ohio and Illinois, was sentenced last week to 50 months in prison for income and employment tax fraud.

Undercover investigators working for the Government Accountability Office were able to receive approximately $30,000 in Advance Premium Tax Credits for health insurance after setting up a dozen fictitious accounts.

More than 300,000 taxpayers overpaid the Individual Shared Responsibility Payment for health insurance on their tax returns processed through the end of April, according to a new report from the National Taxpayer Advocate.

Two Swiss banks agreed to pay combined penalties of about $8.3 million to avoid prosecution under a U.S. program that requires Swiss firms to say how they helped American clients avoid taxes.

A federal appeals court upheld a sentence that didn’t include prison time for H. Ty Warner, the billionaire creator of Beanie Babies plush toys, who evaded $5.6 million in taxes after hiding money in a Swiss bank account.

Some of our favorite recent tax fraud cases.

A scammer who organized a scheme in which taxpayers were threatened with calls purporting to come from the Internal Revenue Service and the FBI demanding payment has been sentenced to 14 years in prison.

The Internal Revenue Service’s Whistleblower Office received more claims last fiscal year than in any prior year as the program has begun paying out larger awards to tipsters with information on tax evaders.

A Bulgarian hacker has admitted to participating in a $6 million fraudulent tax return scheme in which he used tax-filing information stolen from at least four major CPA firms in the U.S.

Some of our favorite recent tax fraud cases.

The Federal Trade Commission says that 2014 marked the fifth consecutive year that tax-related identity theft was the most common form of reported identity theft.

Some of our favorite recent tax fraud cases.

Some of our favorite recent tax fraud cases.

The operator of Pender Tax Services, LLC, a tax preparation business in Rosenhayn, N.J., has been indicted by a federal grand jury on one count of conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service and nine counts of preparing fraudulent tax returns for her clients.

A New Jersey tax preparer was convicted of tax fraud for getting unearned tax refunds for his clients to make extra money for himself.

Some of our favorite recent tax fraud cases.

The Internal Revenue Service met Thursday with tax preparation and software companies, payroll and tax financial product processors, and state tax administrators to announce a sweeping new collaborative effort to combat identity theft refund fraud and protect taxpayers.

Some of our favorite recent tax fraud cases.

A businessman caught in a money-laundering sting helped the U.S. prosecute a foreign business—and now he’s seeking $22.2 million from the government as a reward.

Rothschild Bank AG, the Zurich-based private bank of the Rothschild financial dynasty, became the latest Swiss bank to be fined by the U.S. Justice Department for helping Americans conceal assets offshore.