Tax Fraud

May 5, 2017

A Bronx, New York attorney, who ran a tax preparation business, was sentenced to serve 24 months in prison for filing thousands of fraudulent tax returns that claimed more than $6 million in bogus deductions, announced the Justice Department’s Tax Division. Doonan, 69, a New York licensed attorney since 1982, ran a tax preparation business in the Bronx using the firm name, “William Doonan, Esq.” Every year from 2010 through 2013, Doonan prepared and filed between 3,000 and 5,000 federal tax returns with the IRS for taxpayer-clients in exchange for a fee. Several thousand of these returns were fraudulent and reported bogus “consulting” businesses and business losses, while others claimed fake deductions based on false medical and dental expenses, state and local taxes, home mortgage interest, charitable donations and job expenses. In total, Doonan included more than $6 milion in fabricated and inflated items on his clients’ federal tax returns and caused a tax loss of more than $1.8 million. DOJ

May 2, 2017

A federal grand jury sitting in West Palm Beach, Florida returned an indictment charging a Florida resident with corruptly endeavoring to obstruct and impede the due administration of the internal revenue laws, filing false tax returns, theft of government property and money laundering, announced the Justice Department’s Tax Division. According to the indictment, David R. Andre of Boynton Beach, Florida, filed false income tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from 2010 to 2015 that sought more than $5.6 million in fraudulent tax refunds. The indictment further alleges that the IRS paid out approximately $463,920, which was deposited into Andre’s personal bank account. Andre also allegedly attempted to impede the due administration of the internal revenue laws by making false statements to IRS agents during interviews in 2015. According to the indictment, Andre falsely stated to IRS agents that he purchased his residence with inheritance proceeds, when in fact he purchased it with illegal proceeds from the tax refund fraud. DOJ

April 26, 2017

An Indian national pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering for his role in liquidating and laundering victim payments generated through various telephone fraud and money laundering schemes via India-based call centers. According to admissions made in connection with the plea, Chaudhari and his co-conspirators perpetrated a complex scheme in which individuals from call centers located in Ahmedabad, India, impersonated officials from the IRS or U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in a ruse designed to defraud victims located throughout the United States. Using information obtained from data brokers and other sources, call center operators targeted U.S. victims who were threatened with arrest, imprisonment, fines or deportation if they did not pay alleged monies owed to the government. Victims who agreed to pay the scammers were instructed how to provide payment, including by purchasing stored value cards or wiring money, and upon payment, the call centers would immediately turn to a network of “runners” based in the U.S. to liquidate and launder the fraudulently-obtained funds. DOJ

April 26, 2017

A High Point, North Carolina businessman, who provided financial services to professional athletes, was sentenced to 65 months in prison for wire fraud and filing a false 2011 tax return. According to the documents filed with the court, Michael Rowan, 46, operated Capital Management Wealth Advisors Inc. (CMG) and APS Management LLC (APS), along with his business partner. Through CMG and APS, Rowan provided financial and investment services to professional athletes, including National Football League (NFL) players. Rowan, through CMG and APS, contacted prospective NFL players in college to offer them financial and wealth management services, including bill payment, investment services and financial guidance. Once players were drafted by the NFL, Rowan agreed to provide his services to them for an annual fee of between $15,000 and $50,000. Rowan directed his clients to sign an agreement that allowed Rowan to access their bank accounts. Rowan represented that he would only make transactions that his clients authorized and that were for their benefit. However, Rowan misused his access and transferred more than $2.9 million into accounts he controlled for his own personal benefit and without his clients’ knowledge or consent. For 2009 through 2013, Rowan failed to report more than $1.4 million of the embezzled funds on his federal tax returns, causing a loss to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of more than $479,000. DOJ

April 25, 2017

Three Orange County, California residents were sentenced to prison for willfully failing to report their foreign bank accounts in Switzerland and Israel, announced the Justice Department’s Tax Division. Dan Farhad Kalili, 55, a resident of Irvine, California, was sentenced to serve 12 months and one day in prison; his brother, David Ramin Kalili, 52, a resident of Newport Coast, was sentenced to serve eight months in prison; and his brother-in-law, David Shahrokh Azarian, 67, also a resident of Newport Coast, was sentenced to serve eight months in prison. According to documents and information provided to the court, Dan Kalili, David Kalili and Azarian willfully failed to file with the Department of Treasury Reports of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBARs) regarding secret bank accounts in Switzerland and Israel that each maintained and controlled, many for well over a decade. These secret accounts held assets that reached into the millions of dollars. DOJ

April 21, 2017

Illinois announced charges against the operator of a south suburban home health care business for defrauding the state out of over $200,000 in employee tax withholdings. Reginaldo Sulit, 48, of Chicago, was charged with theft of government funds and income tax fraud in his position as an officer and shareholder of Alliance Home Healthcare in Worth, Ill. Sulit was arraigned this week in Cook County Criminal Court. Madigan alleged that between June 2013 and September 2016, Sulit withheld money designated for employee income taxes from Alliance Home Healthcare employees’ paychecks without remitting the taxes to the Illinois Department of Revenue (IDOR). Madigan alleged Sulit stole over $203,900 through his scheme. IL

April 18, 2017

In the largest-ever recovery of its kind, New York announced a $40 million settlement with Alabama-based Harbert Management Corporation and top executives at the firm. Harbert Management was the fund sponsor for Harbinger Capital Partners, a $26 billion hedge fund based in New York City (“Harbinger Fund”). The settlement resolves whistleblower allegations that members of Harbinger’s investment manager failed to pay millions in New York State tax on performance income for several years. The settlement is the largest tax-related recovery by the Attorney General’s office, resulting from an action filed under the New York False Claims Act, which was amended to cover tax claims in 2010 in a bill sponsored by then-State Senator Eric Schneiderman. NY

April 18, 2017

A federal grand jury returned an indictment on Feb. 9, which was unsealed, charging three men in Florida, with conspiracy, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, announced the Justice Department’s Tax Division. According to the indictment, from approximately 2008 through January 2015, in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, Florida, Israel Tassy, Evens Julien, and Jean Leroy Destine, used stolen IDs, including the personal identifying information of deceased individuals, to file over 2,000 tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) claiming more than $6.8 million in fraudulent refunds. The indictment alleges that Tassy, Julien and Destine recruited and paid others to obtain Electronic Filing Identification Numbers (EFINs) from the IRS, in their names and the names of businesses, and used these EFINs to file the fraudulent returns. The indictment also charges that in approximately February 2011, Julien registered A Tax Financial Services Inc., as a for-profit corporation with the state of Florida, and used it to file fraudulent returns as well. DOJ