king pawn; tell us where it hurts; the check is not sent by post; and other highlights of recent tax cases.
Fort Lauderdale, Florida: Tax preparer Guy Telfort has pleaded guilty to criminal contempt for continuing to prepare and file returns with the IRS in violation of a federal court order restraining him from doing so.
Telfort previously owned and operated the preparation business Tax Houses and Accounting Services in Lauderdale Lakes, Florida. From January 2015 to approximately April 2019, he and other company employees prepared and filed returns for clients.
To generate inflated federal reimbursements, some of these returns reported false items, including fictitious business income and losses and mileage deductions. In April 2019, a federal district court issued an injunction against Telfort, permanently forbidding him prepare federal returns for others.
Despite this injunction, in 2020 and 2021, Telfort continued to prepare and file returns from a local pawnbroker. He charged his clients up to $1,000 for each federal return. Some of the statements referred to false medical and dental expenses and charitable contributions, as well as fictitious businesses. Telfort used PTINs belonging to other tax preparers and, over the two years, helped prepare nearly 1,200 returns for clients in violation of the permanent injunction.
Sentencing is August 16. He could potentially face jail time, supervised release and a fine.
Malvern, Pennsylvania: Resident Michael Goldner was found guilty of tax evasion and failing to file returns, charges stemming from his scheme to use his money and his employer’s bank accounts to hide his real income and avoid paying his taxes .
For the 2013 through 2017 tax years, Goldner reported more than $4 million in income and $1.8 million in taxes owed, of which he paid less than $100,000. From 2016 to 2020, he evaded these outstanding payments while earning a substantial income.
Instead of depositing his paychecks into a personal bank account, he cashed the checks and used his employer’s business accounts to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in personal expenses, including rent, a second home, groceries, private school and dance lessons for his child, country club dues and restitution from a previous fraud conviction for which he was on federal probation.
For 2016 and 2017, Goldner filed returns that did not report this additional income from his employer. For the 2018 and 2019 tax years, he did not file any returns at all.
Pittsburgh: Tax preparer John C. Thornton, of Gibsonia, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to 18 months in prison and two years of supervised release for aiding or assisting in preparing or filing false federal tax returns.
Thornton owned and operated Tax Centers of America franchises. Between 2012 and 2017, IRS investigators uncovered a high pattern of personal income tax returns containing Schedule Cs and the tampering of those forms by Thornton and his company’s tax preparers.
He was also ordered to return $511,718.50.
Gulfport, Mississippi: Tax preparer Orland Reed has pleaded guilty to preparing false federal returns for clients.
Between 2012 and 2014, Reed prepared returns that included false homemaker income, education credits, dependent information, and federal income tax deductions to inflate reimbursements. Sometimes he also listed a different preparer although he prepared the returns.
On at least two occasions, he diverted for his own use federal customer refunds that had been sent to the tax preparation company on prepaid debit cards. Reed withdrew some of the funds from the cards before releasing them to customers.
Sentencing is September 22, when he faces a maximum of three years in prison as well as a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties.
Delray Beach, Florida: Business executive Marc Sporn was sentenced to 14 years in prison for health care and wire fraud that cost Medicare more than $20 million, and for tax evasion.
Sporn owned and operated several telemarketing and telemedicine companies and used them to market medically unnecessary genetic tests to Medicare beneficiaries and to sell prescriptions for medically unnecessary genetic tests to laboratories in exchange for kickbacks and kickbacks. -of-wine.
Through designated owners, he also operated and controlled local companies Medi Biotech and Walmol Holdings. Sporn has used Medi Biotech to market compound prescription creams to customers with certain health conditions. Pharmacies and labs associated with Medi Biotech filled prescriptions, billed customers’ insurance companies, and paid bribes to Sporn.
In addition to opening bank accounts for Medi Biotech in the name of candidates, Sporn opened accounts in the name of Walmol, a front company, and in 2014 and 2015 avoided paying over $1.6 million in taxes. on personal income by embezzling millions through corporate accounts. Sporn used these accounts to purchase luxury items such as high-end watches and diamond jewelry, classic and exotic cars, two yachts, and other items. He also avoided paying more than $2.5 million in personal income tax for other years dating back to 2000.
When the IRS attempted to collect back taxes from Sporn, it attempted to conceal assets by transferring assets to trusts and individuals and repeatedly opening and closing businesses, among other measures.
Sporn was also ordered to pay more than $4 million in restitution to the IRS.
Key West, Florida: Company owner Mykhaylo Chugay was found guilty of conspiracy to harbor non-resident aliens and induce them to stay in the country, conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to to defraud the IRS.
Chugay and others owned and operated labor recruitment businesses between August 2007 and July 2021. Through these businesses, he facilitated the employment of people in hotels, bars, and restaurants in Key West and other locations, although employees were not permitted to work in the US
He and his conspirators defrauded the IRS out of over $10 million in Social Security and Medicare taxes. He conspired to encourage workers to enter the United States and stay in the country in violation of immigration laws; Chugay and others also sent checks and wire transfers totaling more than $11 million to conspirators in Ukraine and elsewhere.
Chugay will be sentenced Aug. 22 and faces a maximum of five years in prison for tax conspiracy, 10 years for conspiracy to harbor foreigners and induce them to stay in the United States, and 20 years for money laundering conspiracy. He also faces a period of supervised release, restitution and financial penalties.
Voorhees, New Jersey: Resident Lori Andrews pleaded guilty to stealing hundreds of checks and money orders from her employer and failing to pay income taxes.
Andrews worked in the property management office of an apartment building in Philadelphia, where tenants paid rent and other expenses to the property management office. From January 2011 to October 2018, Andrews stole 697 checks and money orders totaling $2.67 million from her employer, drove them to New Jersey, and deposited them into a designated bank account which she opened using a fake social Security number. She used the money to pay her personal expenses.
Andrews also admitted that for the 2011 to 2015 tax years, she did not report the stolen income on her returns or pay taxes on that income. She also admitted that she did not file a tax return from 2016 to 2018 and did not pay taxes on her stolen income and funds.
The charge of interstate transportation of stolen property to which Anderson pleaded guilty carries a maximum of 10 years in prison; the tax evasion charge carries a maximum of five years. Both are subject to a potential fine of $250,000. Sentencing is October 27.
