Tax Fraud

April 4, 2017

A Fort Lauderdale, Florida resident was indicted for tax evasion, announced the Justice Department’s Tax Division. According to the indictment, between 2002 and 2015, Thomas Daly earned more than $1.5 million in income working as a salesman for several companies. The indictment alleges that Daly has not filed a federal tax return since 2002, with the exception of the 2007 tax year. In August 2009, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) notified Daly that it intended to levy his wages to collect his unpaid tax liabilities for 2002 through 2006. Allegedly, in an effort to evade the collection of his back taxes, Daly incorporated South Florida Home Marketing Inc. (SFHM) to serve as his nominee and alter ego. Daly allegedly entered into an agreement with his employer to receive his wages in the name of SFHM. The indictment charges that as a result, the IRS’s levy was unsuccessful. Daly also allegedly directed others to make payments to him in the name of SFHM and used the income deposited into SFHM’s bank account to pay personal expenses, including apartment rent, a boat, international travel, entertainment, his girlfriend’s cosmetic surgery and jewelry. DOJ

March 31, 2017

A Republic of Benin man unlawfully residing in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was convicted in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania of conspiring to commit access device fraud. According to the indictment and evidence at trial, from February through June 2014, Abdou Koudos Adissa was engaged in a conspiracy in which stolen identities were used to file tax returns claiming refunds with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Co-conspirators filed tax returns fraudulently seeking more than $800,000 in refunds, which were loaded onto Green Dot prepaid debit cards and sent via Western Union to Nigeria. In order for the prepaid debit cards to accept direct deposits, they had to be registered using personal identifying information including names, social security numbers and addresses. During a search of the apartment Adissa shared with a co-conspirator, special agents found 106 Green Dot cards in Adissa’s room. Adissa registered the Green Dot cards using stolen IDs and provided his co-conspirators with the direct deposit information related to the cards so that fraudulently obtained refunds could be directed to them. to the evidence produced at trial, he called Western Union 63 times in three months to facilitate transferring these fraudulent refunds to Nigeria. DOJ

March 29, 2017

A federal grand jury sitting in St. Louis, Missouri, returned a superseding indictment charging a St. Louis resident for his role in a sophisticated stolen identity refund fraud scheme and other federal offenses, announced the Justice Department’s Tax Division. The superseding indictment charges Kevin Kunlay Williams aka Kunlay Sodipo, a Nigerian citizen, with mail fraud, aggravated identity theft, voter fraud, illegal reentry and being a felon in possession of a firearm. According to the indictment, Williams and others stole public school employees’ IDs from a payroll company and used them to electronically file more than 2000 fraudulent federal income tax returns seeking more than $12 million in refunds. He also allegedly stole several Electronic Filing Identification Numbers (EFINs) that he used to secure bank products allowing him to print refund checks and direct the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to send refunds to prepaid debit cards. The indictment alleges that Williams had refund checks issued in the names of the stolen IDs, and blank check stock and debit cards sent to his residence. DOJ

March 28, 2017

A federal grand jury sitting in St. Louis, Missouri, returned a superseding indictment charging a St. Louis resident for his role in a sophisticated stolen identity refund fraud scheme and other federal offenses, announced the Justice Department’s Tax Division. The superseding indictment charges Kevin Kunlay Williams aka Kunlay Sodipo, a Nigerian citizen, with mail fraud, aggravated identity theft, voter fraud, illegal reentry and being a felon in possession of a firearm. According to the indictment, Williams and others stole public school employees’ IDs from a payroll company and used them to electronically file more than 2000 fraudulent federal income tax returns seeking more than $12 million in refunds. He also allegedly stole several Electronic Filing Identification Numbers (EFINs) that he used to secure bank products allowing him to print refund checks and direct the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to send refunds to prepaid debit cards. The indictment alleges that Williams had refund checks issued in the names of the stolen IDs, and blank check stock and debit cards sent to his residence. DOJ

March 28, 2017

A former U.S. Congressman and one of his associates were indicted for their roles in orchestrating a scheme to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from charitable foundations and the individuals who ran those foundations. Some of the funds were allegedly used to illegally finance the politician’s campaigns for public office and to pay for his personal expenses and those of his associates. Former U.S. Representative Stephen E. Stockman, 60, of Clear Lake, Texas, and the former director of special projects in Stockman’s congressional office, Jason Posey, 46, formerly of the Houston, Texas, area, were charged in a 28-count superseding indictment with mail and wire fraud, conspiracy, making false statements to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), making excessive campaign contributions and money laundering. Stockman is also charged with filing a false tax return that concealed his receipt and personal use of the fraudulent proceeds, while Posey is charged with falsifying an affidavit in order to obstruct an FEC investigation. According to the superseding indictment, from May 2010 to October 2014, Stockman solicited approximately $1,250,000 in donations based on false pretenses. Specifically, the indictment alleges that in 2010, Stockman diverted a significant portion of $285,000 donated to charitable causes to pay for his and Dodd’s own personal expenses and to further Stockman’s own interests. The indictment further alleges that in 2011 and 2012, Stockman and Dodd received an additional $165,000 in charitable donations, much of which Stockman used to finance his 2012 congressional campaign. DOJ

March 23, 2017

A federal grand jury sitting in the District of Massachusetts returned an indictment charging two Massachusetts residents who operated a temporary employment agency with conspiring to defraud the government, failing to pay over employment taxes and obstructing the internal revenue laws, announced the Justice Department’s Tax Division. According to the indictment, Huong Le and Tien Chau ran an employment agency that provided temporary labor to businesses in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The agency operated under at least four different names: Central Boston Staffing Services, Metro Boston Staffing Services, General Staffing Inc. and Kim’s Staffing Inc. Le and Chau allegedly used family members and other individuals as nominees to conceal their ownership of the business. The indictment alleges that from 2006 through 2011, Le and Chau conspired to conceal their agency’s total number of employees from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to lower their employment tax liabilities. Le and Chau allegedly attempted to hide the size of their workforce from the IRS by paying most of their employees cash under the table and causing the filing of false employment tax returns that both underreported the number of their employees and did not report wages paid in cash. Le and Chau allegedly cashed over $11 million in client checks at a check cashing facility in Worcester and used their staffing agency’s site supervisors, office manager and drivers to pay their employees in cash. DOJ

March 22, 2017

New York announced the indictment of Steve Chon, Daniel Chon, Victor Chon, Stephanie Chon and Spa Castle Inc. on eleven felony charges each, stemming from their alleged theft or failure to remit over $1.5 million in sales and other taxes owed by Spa Castle Inc. Steve Chon (57), his brothers Daniel Chon (54) and Victor Chon (50), and his daughter Stephanie Chon (29), own and operate Spa Castle Inc., a 100,000-square foot spa facility located at 131-10 11th Avenue in College Point, Queens. According to the charges, the Chon family failed to report millions of dollars in revenues collected by Spa Castle, Inc. from 2010 through 2013, thereby failing to remit to New York State a total of over $621,000 in sales taxes, $207,000 in withholding taxes, $610,000 in corporate taxes, and $131,000 in Metropolitan Transportation Authority Surcharge taxes. NY

March 22, 2017

A Houston, Texas business owner pleaded guilty to one count of failing to pay over employment taxes, announced the Justice Department’s Tax Division. According to documents filed with the court, Richard Floyd Tatum Jr., 57, owned Associated Marine & Industrial Staffing Inc. (AMI), an industrial staffing company that provided temporary labor to businesses in Texas and other states. Tatum employed approximately 1,000 people to include internal employees, who worked for AMI, and external employees, who AMI assigned to work on-site at client locations. Tatum was responsible for collecting, accounting for and paying over to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) the payroll taxes withheld from AMI’s employees’ wages. Tatum exercised significant control over AMI’s finances to include entering into contracts, signing checks, to include payroll, and deciding which creditors to pay. Tatum also signed and filed AMI’s employment tax returns. From March 2008 through December 2009, Tatum filed false and untimely employment tax returns for AMI that did not report AMI’s external employees. In May 2013, Tatum filed untimely returns for the quarters ending in March 2010 through December 2012, reporting AMI’s external employees but failing to make any payments. Tatum withheld approximately $12 million in payroll taxes from March 2008 through December 2012, which he did not pay over to the IRS. Tatum also failed to pay $6 million of AMI’s contributing share of social security and Medicare taxes during the same quarters. Instead, he used the money for his personal benefit, including making payments on his ranch and traveling to Las Vegas, Hawaii and France. Tatum admitted that he caused a tax loss of more than $18 million. DOJ

March 22, 2017

A grand jury in Baltimore, Maryland returned an indictment on March 9, charging a chiropractor with one count of corruptly endeavoring to impede the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and six counts of filing false tax returns, announced the Justice Department’s Tax Division. According to the indictment, Dr. Warren Gregory Belcher, a resident of Salisbury, Maryland, operated a chiropractic business for nearly 20 years. During that time, he received income for chiropractic services from insurance companies, patients and other third parties, including another chiropractor in Baltimore. The indictment alleges that for the years 2009 through 2015, Belcher filed false individual income tax returns on which he failed to report that he operated a chiropractic business and falsely claimed that he had earned $0 in business income. The indictment further alleges that between 2008 and 2015, Belcher submitted approximately 79 letters to insurance companies and other third parties in which he threatened that the companies could be subject to civil and criminal penalties for reporting his income to the IRS on a Form 1099-MISC. A Form 1099-MISC is a tax form that is used to report certain types of income to the IRS, including payments for services performed by someone who is not an employee and medical and health care payments. Belcher also made threatening statements to an accountant to prevent the accountant from reporting his income to the government. DOJ