Island girls; five-year mission; nurse malpractitioner; and other highlights of recent tax cases.
St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands: Patricia Henry has been found guilty of conspiracy to defraud the U.S.
Patricia Henry, her daughter Phiona Henry, and others participated in a scheme to steal federal income tax refunds from 2010 to 2013. The scheme involved acquisition of personal ID information to e-file falsified returns for tax years 2009 through 2012. Patricia Henry aided others in the filing of returns in individuals’ true names and actual Social Security numbers, but falsified the individuals’ income earned, withholding amounts, credits and other information. The conspirators designated bank accounts for receipt of the refunds. Three returns were filed in the name of Patricia Henry.
She faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Phiona Henry pleaded guilty last year and awaits sentencing.
Tucson, Arizona: A federal court has permanently enjoined tax preparer Joseph Michael Vosberg from preparing federal income tax returns for others.
The complaint alleged that Vosberg included false business losses and charitable deductions on some clients’ returns and allegedly instructed clients to keep receipts from their day-to-day activities to document their false business expenses and charitable donations in the event of an IRS audit and not to cooperate with the IRS during civil audits.
Vosberg consented to the entry of a permanent injunction as part of his 2018 plea agreement with the U.S., under which he pleaded guilty to aiding and assisting in the preparation and presentation of a false federal income tax return. Last year, he was sentenced to
Erie, Pennsylvania: Resident Andrea Jones has pleaded guilty to filing false income tax returns and aiding and assisting the filing of false and fraudulent income tax returns.
Jones prepared and filed false federal returns for herself and others who used her as their preparer for tax years 2011 through 2015.
Sentencing is March 9. Jones faces a possible total sentence of 42 years in prison and a fine of $3.5 million.
New York: Nikki B. Yu, co-owner of an acupuncture business, has pleaded guilty to aiding and assisting in the preparation of a false return.
Yu, of Queens, New York, co-owned and operated Wellife Physical Therapy and Acupuncture and was also involved in the operation of Welling Physical Therapy and Acupuncture. She used a series of management companies to receive untaxed income from the businesses. She and others transferred funds from Welling and Wellife to the management companies but did not report those funds to the IRS.
Yu and others cashed some $3 million in checks payable to the management companies at a check-cashing business and then provided false and incomplete information to her preparers by failing to disclose this check cashing. Yu admitted that she caused six false income tax returns to be filed on behalf of the management companies, understating their gross receipts.
Sentencing is April 21, when Yu faces up to three years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Newburgh, New York: Resident Jose Andreu has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the U.S.
Andreu filed false returns with the assistance of a tax preparer. From 2011 through 2019, Andreu and others prepared and filed false returns through two prep firms that reported significant tax withholdings based on fictitious 1099-OIDs to fraudulently obtain federal refunds. The 1099-OIDs falsely reported that financial institutions, creditors and other entities had withheld federal income tax. Andreu also filed false returns for himself and others, claiming more than $2,125,872 in refunds from the IRS.
Sentencing is Feb. 24. Andreu faces up to five years in prison, as well as monetary penalties. He has agreed to pay restitution to the IRS.
Memphis, Tennessee: Terry Benson, of Senatobia, Mississippi, has been found guilty of theft of government funds, mail fraud and passing fictitious instruments.
Benson was found guilty of defrauding the IRS by submitting fictitious financial instruments in the amounts of $393,053.78 and $1.3 million and other numerous fraudulent documents, causing the IRS to send him a refund check for $297,311.12. He then used those funds to open accounts with Morgan Stanley and Regions Bank and purchase a mobile home and other personal items.
Benson sent the IRS a fictitious money order as a “Tax Account Settlement Payment” which was applied to balances he owed for tax years 2006, 2007 and 2010. The IRS issued him a refund check in the amount of $297,311.12 for the overage amount after applying amounts to his IRS debt and debt owed by Benson to the Tennessee Office of Child Support Enforcement Services.
Benson filed many fraudulent documents with the IRS naming public officials, organizations or other entities in the documents. He also filed UCC-1 financing statements with the Tennessee Secretary of State naming Regions Bank, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, Shelby County Juvenile Court, the IRS and an employee of the IRS as debtors while identifying himself as the creditor.
Sentencing is Feb. 25, when Benson faces possible sentences of up to 10 years for the theft of government funds, up to 20 years for mail fraud and up to 25 years for passing fictitious instruments.
Hoover, Alabama: Salesman Ivan Scott Butler has been sentenced to two years in prison for tax evasion.
Butler was an automobile industry consultant and sold automobile warranties as an independent salesman. In 1993, he stopped filing tax returns and attended tax defier meetings and purchased tax defier materials. Five years later, Butler used several Nevada nominee corporations to receive his income and conceal it from the IRS. In or around 1999, Butler moved hundreds of thousands of dollars to bank accounts in Switzerland and hid his assets in offshore insurance policies held in the name of non-U.S. insurance providers (a.k.a. insurance wrappers).
In 2014, Butler converted some of his insurance wrappers into precious metals, which were shipped to Butler and another individual in the U.S. Some of those precious metals were given to friends and family for safekeeping.
In total, Butler caused a tax loss to the IRS of $1,093,400.
Butler, who pleaded guilty in March, was also ordered to serve three years of supervised release and to pay some $1,093,400 in restitution to the U.S.
Ann Arbor, Michigan: Sonja Emery, formerly employed by a health care consultancy, has been sentenced to 65 months in prison for defrauding employers and evading taxes.
Emery, whose aliases included Sonja Lee Robinson, Sonjalee Emery-Robinson and Sonjalee Emery, resided in Georgia, New Jersey, New York and California. From 2011 through 2018, she misrepresented her professional status, education and work experience to secure consulting positions in health care. She falsely claimed to be a registered nurse licensed in several states and lied to employers that she had degrees in, among other areas, nursing and in health and business administration. Using these false representations, from 2011 through 2018 Emery secured high-level health-care positions and earned hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.
During these years, she either didn’t file or late-filed returns despite owing more than $400,000 in taxes. She sought to avoid being detected by providing employers with different names and false Social Security numbers, by falsely instructing employers that she was “exempt” from taxes and by supplying an employer with an ID number that did not belong to her.
Emery, who pleaded guilty in February, was also ordered to serve three years of supervised release and to pay some $2.2 million in restitution to employer victims and $697,000 in restitution to the U.S.
