November 3, 11

NEWS / Alabama Return Preparers Found Guilty of Tax Crimes

Business Owner and Employee Filed False Tax Returns to Obtain Fraudulent Tax Refunds

WASHINGTON - James E. Moss and Avada L. Jenkins were found guilty today of tax crimes relating to “Flash Tax,” a Montgomery, Ala., tax preparation business owned by Moss, the Justice Department announced. U.S. District Court Judge for the Middle District of Alabama Mark E. Fuller presided over the jury trial of Moss and Jenkins for conspiring to defraud the United States and for aiding and assisting the preparation of false tax returns, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced.



The evidence at trial proved that both Moss and Jenkins, an employee of Flash Tax, prepared false tax returns for customers that fraudulently inflated the amount of refunds due to the customers. Evidence presented at trial showed that the tax loss affiliated with this scheme was more than $75,000.



The defendants each face a maximum potential sentence of eighty years in prison and maximum fines of $6.5 million. A sentencing date has not been scheduled.



The case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation and was prosecuted by Tax Division Trial Attorneys Charles M. Edgar, Jr., Thomas J. Krepp and Michelle M. Petersen.

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2011/November/11-tax-1445.html

Tags: criminal investigation,