Tax Fraud

October 4, 2016

A former Internal Revenue Service (IRS) revenue officer pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court in the Middle District of North Carolina to one count of tax evasion and one count of corruptly endeavoring to impede the due administration of the internal revenue laws. According to documents filed with the court, Henti Lucian Baird, 60, and a resident of Greensboro, North Carolina, filed tax returns each year but has not paid his self-assessed taxes since at least 1998. During this time, Baird continued to pay the mortgage on his 4,300 square-foot home, annual fees for his timeshare in Florida and car payments on his BMW. Baird admitted to the revenue officer and the mortgage holder that he did not keep money in bank accounts because he feared a levy or garnishment. DOJ

September 22, 2016

A federal jury in Los Angeles convicted Michael Huynh, the owner of a California medical clinic, for his role in a health care fraud scheme and for filing false income tax returns. Evidence at trial showed that Huynh provided false prescriptions to a pharmacist and co-conspirator, Farhad N. Dany Sharim, who submitted false claims to insurance companies for drugs that were never dispensed.  DOJ

September 22, 2016

A federal jury in Los Angeles convicted the owner of a medical clinic for his role in a health care fraud scheme and for filing false income tax returns. Evidence introduced at trial showed that Michael Huynh, 66, the office manager and part-owner of a medical clinic, provided false prescriptions to a pharmacist and co-conspirator, Farhad N. Dany Sharim, who submitted false claims to insurance companies for drugs that were never dispensed. Once Sharim received payments from the insurance companies, he paid Huynh for the false prescriptions. Trial evidence showed that between January 2004 and November 2009, Huynh received 82 checks from Sharim totaling over $1.1 million. Evidence at trial also demonstrated that Huynh filed false federal tax returns for tax years 2007 through 2011 that underreported the medical clinic’s gross receipts and sales on the corporate tax returns and total income on the individual tax returns. Trial evidence showed underreported income of over $1.6 million. DOJ

September 20, 2016

The former executive director of the Armed Forces Foundation was indicted on federal charges stemming from a scheme in which she allegedly stole from the non-profit charity, defrauded donors, and lied to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the public about her salary and benefits. The indictment was announced by the Washington Field Office of the IRS-Criminal Investigation. The indictment also includes a forfeiture allegation seeking all proceeds that can be traced to the alleged fraud scheme. DOJ

September 19, 2016

A Watertown, New York, food and restaurant entrepreneur and franchisor pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of tax evasion announced the Justice Department’s Tax Division. According to the criminal information and plea agreement filed with the U.S. District Court in Utica, New York, between 2005 and 2015, Christopher Swartz, 46, engaged in a promissory note scheme to defraud lenders and investors, as well as a scheme to evade taxes and obstruct the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). DOJ

September 14, 2016

A Durham, North Carolina, tax return preparer was sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison for aiding in the preparation of false tax returns, announced the Justice Department’s Tax Division. According to documents filed with the court, Reyna Nembiu Montes, operated “Su Manu Amiga,” a tax return preparation business in Durham. Montes admitted that she prepared multiple false individual income tax returns for clients, claiming false dependents in order to generate fraudulent refunds. She further admitted that she failed to disclose the existence of her tax return preparation business on her personal income tax returns. DOJ

August 31, 2016

A Pollock Pines, California, woman who owned a tax return preparation business and two of her employees, pleaded guilty to charges related to filing more than 250 false claims for refund, announced the Justice Department’s Tax. Teresa Marty, 56, the owner of Advanced Financial Services (AFS), a Placerville, California, tax return preparation business, pleaded guilty to conspiring to file false claims for refund and conspiring to defraud the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). On Aug. 24, Pamela Harris, Marty’s office manager, and Rebecca Bandera-Marty, a California certified tax return preparer, also pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to file false claims. Marty, Harris and Bandera-Marty were indicted in June 2013 along with two other co-defendant clients, Charles and Victoria Tingler. The Tinglers pleaded guilty to filing false claims in the spring of 2015 and will be sentenced in November. DOJ

August 26, 2016

A federal court in Charleston, South Carolina, has permanently barred two women from preparing federal tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced. According to a civil complaint filed by the United States, Latasha Failey and her sister Latoya Windham prepared federal income returns in North Charleston from 2009 to 2012. They continually and repeatedly prepared income tax returns that claimed false deductions or credits in order to understate their customers’ tax liabilities, the complaint alleged. The defendants falsely claimed education credits; child and dependent care credits; itemized deductions on Schedule A; and dependency exemptions, according to the complaint. In 2013, Failey and Windham each pleaded guilty to two counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation and presentation of a false income tax return and were sentenced to prison and probation, respectively, the complaint states. DOJ

August 23, 2016

A congressional staffer was charged with five counts of willfully failing to file a tax return, announced the Justice Department’s Tax Division. According to the criminal information and affidavit, Isaac Lanier Avant of Arlington, Virginia, is a staff member employed by the U.S. House of Representatives since approximately 2002. For tax years 2009 through 2013, Avant earned annual wages of over $170,000, but did not timely file a personal income tax return for any of those years. In May 2005, Avant filed a form with his employer that falsely claimed he was exempt from federal income taxes. Avant did not have any federal tax withheld from his paycheck until the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) mandated that his employer begin withholding in January 2013. If convicted, Avant faces a statutory maximum sentence of one year in prison for each count, as well as a term of supervised release and monetary penalties. DOJ