IRS Criminal Division, DOJ Busy Combatting Tax Fraud Schemes During Filing Season
A North Carolina resident was arrested this week after a grand jury indicted the resident for one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and 14 counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation of a fraudulent tax return. This arrest comes days after another North Carolina resident was sentenced to a year in prison for assisting in the filing of false tax returns.
In the first case, Garvey Imhotep is alleged to have conspired with others to file false tax returns for clients of Tax Kings LLC, Two Brothers Tax Service, and Taxes Done Right from 2011 to 2015, according to a Department of Justice (DOJ) release.
Imhotep was an owner and operator of all three tax return business and is alleged to have filed tax returns which fraudulently claimed false education credits, among other items, to generate clients’ tax refunds.
This case was led by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Criminal Division and the DOJ Tax Division.
The IRS Criminal Division and the DOJ Tax Division also worked together on the case in Charlotte which resulted in a sentence this week, according to a DOJ release.
Shawanda Elmore owned and operated C and W Professionals from 2011 to 2017 and, through her practice, fraudulently increased her clients’ tax refunds by preparing returns that claimed false deductions and reported income and expenses for fictitious businesses in order to claim the Earned Income Tax Credit.
Elmore prepared approximately 500 fraudulent tax returns that claimed over $500,000 in false tax refunds.
In addition to a 24 month prison sentence, Elmore was ordered to serve one year of supervised release and to pay restitution in the amount of $517,738 to the Internal Revenue Service.
The IRS announced this week a two-week enforcement and education campaign to combat refund and crimes and identity theft.
Don Fort, Chief of IRS Criminal Investigations, said in a release announcing the campaign, “Millions of taxpayers put their trust in tax professionals to prepare accurate and lawful returns. Unfortunately, a few bad apples take advantage of that trust for their own greed and profit. [The Criminal Division’s] special agents are highly skilled at unraveling fraudulent schemes. With our partners in other agencies and the private sector, we are dismantling these crooked enterprises and enforcing our tax laws.”