Services, stock, shenanigans; fuel for fraud; Mo’ plea; and other highlights of recent tax cases.
Starkville, Miss.: Former preparer Jameka Coffey has pleaded guilty to aiding and assisting in the preparation and filing of a false return.
According to documents and information provided to the court, from early 2012 through April 2016 Coffey managed ABS Tax Services, and falsified taxpayer client returns by claiming false education credits and reporting fake businesses to seek undeserved refunds for her clients. She also admitted that she trained other preparers to file fraudulent returns.
Coffey faces a statutory maximum sentence of three years in prison, as well as a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties.
Rochester, N.Y.: Jason Guck, 43, of Victor, N.Y., and co-founder of a multi-level-marketing company, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and filing a false return for 2012.
Authorities said that in 2001 Guck, Craig Jerabeck, and Jeb Tyler started 5LINX Enterprise, which offered utility and telecommunications services, health insurance, nutritional supplements and business services. 5LINX used independent representatives to sell products and services and to recruit additional representatives. Jerabeck was president and CEO, Guck was vice president and secretary and Tyler was a vice president.
In the summer of 2006, the three sold 5LINX stock for $5.5 million to three investment companies: Trillium Lakefront Partners III, Trillium Lakefront Partners III, NY and Shalam Investment Co. Guck admitted in the plea agreement that from in or about May 2010 to April 2016, 5LINX sold and distributed products for a Florida vendor.
Guck, Tyler and Jerabeck, without the knowledge of the investors, board of directors or other stockholders, conspired and agreed to cause the Florida vendor to pay them personally or companies they owned approximately $2,310,510, which their stockholders agreements prohibited them from receiving.
Authorities also said Guck solely owned YaYa Holdings Corp. and provided material false information on YaYa’s federal returns for fiscal years ending July 31, 2012 and 2013, and failed to file corporate returns for the fiscal years ending July 31, 2014 and 2015. In addition, for fiscal years ending July 31, 2012 and 2013, Guck failed to report income the corporation received from 5LINX. Also, for the fiscal years ending July 31, 2014 and 2015, the corporation had income that Guck should have reported on corporate returns for those years.
The false returns and failure to file returns resulted in a tax loss of some $778,718.
As part of Guck’s plea, he will forfeit various assets previously seized by the government, including approximately $105,000.
Sentencing is Oct. 16. The charges carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
Winston-Salem, N.C.: Preparer Claudia Lynette Shivers has pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the U.S. by filing false returns.
According to court documents, Shivers co-owned and operated two prep businesses: Fast Tax of Winston-Salem and Quick Taxes in Greensboro, N.C. She and co-conspirators falsified items on clients’ returns, such as dependents and Schedule A deductions, to inflate refunds. Shivers also directed clients to hand-write false information on tax forms and other documents used in the preparation of their returns.
Shivers further admitted that she held training sessions for her employees, during which she would instruct them on how to manipulate the information on returns to obtain refunds to which the clients were not entitled.
Between January 2014 and April 2017, Shivers and her co-conspirators prepared approximately 519 false returns that claimed some $1.3 million in bogus refunds.
Sentencing is Dec. 20, when she faces a maximum of five years in prison, as well as a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties.
Shiver’s co-conspirators, Shannon DeWayne Patterson, Kristyn Dion Daney and Rakeem Lenell Scales, have all pleaded guilty and await sentencing.
Parker, Colo.: Business owner Calvin Glover has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to impair and impede the IRS for his role in a multi-million-dollar renewable fuel tax credit scheme.
According to court documents, Glover owned Colorado-based renewable fuel company Shintan Inc. and conspired with others to file false claims for refundable federal fuel tax credits. He signed at least 23 false returns that claimed more than $7.2 million in bogus refundable biodiesel mixture tax credits. The IRS issued more than $7 million in refunds to Shintan.
Glover deposited the checks into a bank account that he controlled and then transferred the proceeds to his co-conspirators.
In response to two grand jury subpoenas during the investigation, Glover provided false documents and information to investigators and met with co-conspirators to concoct a false story.
He faces a maximum of five years in prison, as well as a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties.
Miami: A federal court has permanently enjoined Jean-Philippe and Roberton Boursiquot from preparing federal income tax returns for others.
The court also entered a $250,000 judgment against Jean-Philippe Boursiquot and a $100,000 judgment against Roberton Boursiquot on federal authorities’ claim for the disgorgement of ill-gotten fees the two charged clients for preparation of federal returns.
The Boursiquots consented to the injunction order and money judgments. In May, the court also entered an injunction order against B&C Royalty Multi-Services in Oakland Park, Fla., and RBS Flamboyant Solutions in Hollywood, Fla., prohibiting both corporations from preparing federal income tax returns for others.
The complaint alleges that the Boursiquots and their corporations continually claimed education credits for taxpayers who did not incur qualifying expenses. The complaint also alleges that they fabricated business income or expenses to qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit.
It is further alleged that the Boursiquots and their corporations charged clients exorbitant fees without the clients’ knowledge and quoted refunds to clients that were substantially smaller than the refunds requested on the returns filed with the IRS. They would then allegedly pocket the excess as prep fees, often without the clients’ knowledge, according to the complaint.
Durant, Miss.: Former preparer Teresa C. Chism has pleaded guilty to preparing and filing a fraudulent claim for a refund with the IRS.
According to court documents and information provided in court, from 2005 through 2015 Chism operated prep businesses in Mississippi named Mo’ Money, MoneyCo USA and Lady T Taxes. Chism falsified her clients’ returns in different ways to increase their tax refunds, including reporting false wages, false self-employment income and expenses and false education credits.
In total, Chism prepared more than 550 false returns seeking more than $3.5 million in fraudulent refunds. The IRS paid at least $3.2 million in refunds on these bogus claims.
She also did not file individual returns or pay taxes on her own income for 2013 to 2015, despite earning more than $100,000 during those years.
Sentencing is Nov. 8. Chism faces a maximum of five years in prison, as well as supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties.
