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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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May 1, 2019

A Pennsylvania man has been convicted of defrauding the EPA and IRS of $50 million over the course of five years.  Together with his co-defendant, Ralph Tomasso, David Dunham Jr. used their companies to illegally profit from the EPA’s Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) Program by fraudulently applying for, receiving, and selling credits to renewable biofuels that they didn’t actually sell or never actually possessed. Now, the government is seeking forfeiture of $1.7 million in fraudulently obtained revenue.  DOJ (August 6, 2020 sentencing)

March 22, 2019

A man in Colorado plead guilty to his role in a $7.2 million tax credit fraud scheme that ran from 2010 to 2013. To take advantage of a federal program that encourages the production and use of renewable fuels, Matthew Taylor and co-conspirators created a fake fuel production company, Shintan Inc., and filed false claims for tax credits with the IRS, even though their company produced no qualifying fuels. Altogether, their scheme netted them a total of $7.2 million, with $4.5 million going to Taylor. DOJ

October 5, 2018

Following a court trial, a federal court in Utah has ordered that RaPower-3 LLC and International Automated Systems, Inc. stop all promotion and marketing and disgorge $50 million collected in an abusive tax scheme involving false tax deductions and solar energy credits.  The companies and their principals marketed what they claimed was technology that could be used in the production of solar energy and which, they further claimed, entitled the purchasers to take certain tax deductions and solar energy tax credits.  In fact, however, the technology was phony and defendants knew that its purchasers would not be entitled to the tax deductions and credits.  DOJ

October 4, 2018

David Tielle of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty to tax fraud for his role in the submission of over $4 million in fraudulent claims for tax refunds under the Biodiesel Mixture Tax Credit by Keystone Biofuels Inc.  Tielle inflated fuel amounts reported to the IRS, claiming tax refunds on fuel Keystone was not producing. To account for the inflated fuel amounts, Tielle created false books and records and engaged in a series of sham financial transactions. USAO MDPA; DOJ.

Executives of Company with Ties to Polygamous Church Indicted for Over $500 Million in False Claims for Renewable Fuel Tax Credits

Posted  08/29/18
Tax Fraud
On Friday, August 24th, DOJ announced that three individuals had been indicted by a grand jury in Utah for filing false claims for over $500 million in renewable fuel tax credits on behalf of Washakie Renewable Energy. Washakie is associated with the Kingston Group, a Utah-based polygamous church with fundamentalist Mormon beliefs, that has previously paid $3 million to the EPA for falsely claiming to have produced...

August 24, 2018

Executives of Utah-based biodiesel company Washakie Renewable Energy, and another individual associated with NOIL Energy Group in California, were indicted for falsely claiming over $500 million in renewable fuel tax credits. The individuals allegedly created false production records and other paperwork to make it appear that fuel transactions that qualified for the tax credit were occurring.  The indictment also included allegations of money laundering.  DOJ

June 22, 2018

Tax preparers Joseph Racine and Arnouse Merlien pled guilty to conspiracy to violate the Internal Revenue Code by falsely claiming tax credits and deductions for their clients. Racine and Merlien defrauded taxpayers of over $3.5 million. The investigation showed that Racine and Merlien improperly claimed the tax credits and deductions for their clients to increase the amount of fees they could charge their clients. USAO NDGA

February 6, 2018

Andre Bernard of Mount Kisco, NY was sentenced to 87 months in federal prison for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, making false statements related to the Clean Air Act, and his participation in a multi-state scheme to defraud biodiesel buyers and U.S. taxpayers by fraudulently selling biodiesel credits and fraudulently claiming tax credits. As part of his sentence, the court also entered a money judgment in the amount of $10.5 million, the amount of proceeds of the charged criminal conduct that the defendant personally received. Two accounts already seized from the defendant worth in excess of $1.5 million will be credited against the money judgment. DOJ

August 2, 2017

Andre Bernard, of Mount Kisco, New York, pleaded guilty for his participation in a multi-state scheme to defraud biodiesel buyers and U.S. taxpayers by fraudulently selling biodiesel credits and fraudulently claiming tax credits. According to his plea, Bernard conspired with Thomas Davanzo, of Estero, Florida, Robert Fedyna, of Naples, Florida, and Scott Johnson of Pasco, Washington in a scheme to defraud biodiesel credit (known as "RIN" credits) buyers and U.S. taxpayers. The conspiracy involved having Gen-X Energy Group (Gen-X), headquartered in Pasco, Washington, and its subsidiary, Southern Resources and Commodities (SRC), located in Dublin, Georgia, generate fraudulent RINs and tax credits multiple times on the same material. Bernard and his co-conspirators operated several shell companies that claimed to purchase and sell the renewable fuel. The co-conspirators received at least $42 million from the sale of these fraudulent RINs to third parties. In addition, Gen-X received approximately $4,360,724.50 in false tax credits for this fuel. DOJ