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Tax Credit and Deduction Fraud

This archive displays posts tagged as relevant to tax credit and deduction fraud. You may also be interested in the following pages:

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April 27, 2023

Adela Cruz, of Uvalde County, TX, will spend 27 months in prison and will pay $129,239 in restitution for willfully assisting clients in the preparation and filing of their IRS tax returns. Cruz inflated her clients’ refunds by claiming false education credits, dependents, and business profits or losses, and concealed her involvement by using fake taxpayer emails on the filings. DOJ

Top Ten Tax Recoveries for 2021

Posted  01/19/22
Currency Zoomed In
Our top tax recoveries for 2021 total over $7 billion, an impressive number that is due largely to just one of our top ten tax recoveries. Tax evaders were creative last year, utilizing offshore banking, good old tax fraud, and forum shopping for an accounting opinion that fits—all with the intention of cheating the IRS and, in return, the taxpaying public. IRS Criminal Investigation flexed its muscles and went...

January 10, 2022

Following his guilty plea on charges related to the filing of false tax returns claiming nonexistent fuel tax credits, Michael Dexter Little was ordered to forfeit $12.3 million and sentenced to 19.5 years in prison.  Little and his fellow fraudsters filed false tax returns in their own names and in the names of identity theft victims, and laundered the proceeds via real estate and other assets. USAO MDFL

December 20, 2021

James Tarpey, an attorney and principal in Project Philanthropy Inc. dba Donate for Cause (DFC), has been ordered to pay $8.5 million in penalties for promoting a tax shelter with claims that timeshare owners could donate their unwanted timeshare interests to DFC and receive tax benefits in return.  Tarpey and his agents prepared appraisals on donated timeshares, despite lacking sufficient independence and knowing that his false appraisals resulted in tax avoidance.  DOJ

December 13, 2021

Following his conviction at trial on tax fraud charges, John Barry Jr. was sentenced to 12 years in prison and ordered to pay $4.2 million in restitution.  According to evidence at trial, Barry promoted a “mortgage recovery” tax scheme, telling clients that they could extinguish mortgage debts by filing false forms with the IRS claiming that a large amount of taxes had been withheld.  These false withholding claims caused the IRS to issue more than $4 million in refunds to Barry’s clients; Barry typically charged each client a fee of between 20% to 35% of the refund obtained.  DOJ

August 6, 2021

Chandra Yarlagadda, who owned and operated biodiesel supplier Alpha Bioenergy LLC, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $3.3 million following his guilty plea to income tax evasion charges.  Yarlagadda, who reported income and expenses associated with Alpha Bioenergy on Schedules C attached to his personal income tax returns, admitted that over the course of three years he reported that the company incurred expenses totaling more than $14.2 million for the purchase and retirement of Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) used by the EPA, when, in fact, he had incurred only $80,000 in RIN expenses during those years.  Without the inflated deduction claims, Yarlagadda would have owed an additional $2.3 million in federal income taxes.  DOJ

October 10, 2020

The owners of Keystone Biofuels Inc., Ben Wootton and Race Miner, were sentenced to approximately 5.5 years imprisonment each and they and Keystone were ordered to pay restitution and fines totaling $9.23 million to the IRS and Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection following their convictions at trial for charges relating to their renewable fuels scam.  The defendants falsely claimed that they were able to produce biodiesel that permitted them to create renewable fuel credits known as RINs; then then sold both the non-qualifying fuel and the fraudulently-created RINs.  In addition, Keystone claimed federal tax refunds under the IRS Biofuel Mixture Credit program, creating false books and records to conceal the non-qualifying, and in some cases non-existent, fuel.  DOJ

August 6, 2020

Following his conviction at trial on charges to defraud the EPA and IRS, David Dunham, who had ownership interests in Smarter Fuel LLC and Greenworks Holdings LLC, was sentenced to seven years in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $10.21 million.  Dunham fraudulently applied for, received, and sold over $50 million in EPA, IRA, and USDA credits and payments for producing biofuels that he, in fact, did not produce and, in many instances, had never possessed in the first place.  DOJ

April 29, 2020

Ecotrust Forest Management and its non-profit affiliate, Ecotrust, will pay $4.4 million to resolve claims under the Oregon False Claims Act that they fraudulently claimed entitlement to New Market Tax Credits, which are meant to provide incentives for economic development in disadvantaged areas of the state, on their financing of two development projects, the Rough & Ready Sawmill in Cave Junction and the purchase of forestland in Desolation Creek.  The companies allegedly overstated their expenses on the projects in order to secure larger tax credits.  OR

March 2, 2020

A man in Colorado who was part of a tax fraud scheme involving renewable fuel credits has been sentenced to nearly 7 years in prison and ordered to pay $7.2 million in restitution.  Along with co-conspirators, Matthew Taylor created a fake company, Shintan Inc., that they then used to seek out and obtain over $7.2 million in tax credits for renewable fuel that Shintan never actually produced.  The fraud ran from 2010 to 2013 and personally netted Taylor about $4.5 million.  DOJ
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