Reach across the island; room service; tag game; and other highlights of recent tax cases.

New Orleans: Preparator Trish Christopher, of Metairie, Louisiana, was sentenced to three years probation for aiding and assisting in preparing false federal statements.

Christopher admitted that as the owner and operator of CC Tax Service, she prepared and had at least 36 personal income tax returns prepared that included bogus or fictitious Schedule A deductions to inflate customer refunds.

She agreed to pay $ 195,205 in restitution to the IRS. She was also ordered to pay a special assessment fee of $ 100.

Christopher’s crime carries a sentence of up to three years in prison.

Houston: Lawyer Jack Stephen Pursley was sentenced to two years in prison for conspiring to defraud the United States and for tax evasion.

Pursley was convicted in September of conspiring with a customer to repatriate more than $ 18 million in untaxed income the customer earned through his company, Southeastern Shipping. Pursley knew that the client had never paid taxes on these funds. So Pursley devised and implemented a scheme to transfer the untaxed funds from the Southeastern commercial bank account on the Isle of Man in the United States. Pursley helped cover up the movement of IRS funds by disguising the transfers as purchases of shares in US companies owned and controlled by Pursley and his client.

Pursley received more than $ 4.8 million and a 25 percent stake in the co-conspirator’s day-to-day business for his role in the scheme. In 2009 and 2010, Pursley escaped assessment and failed to pay the taxes he owed on those payments, among other means, withdrawing the funds as so-called tax-free loans and principal repayments. He used the money for investments and to purchase personal property, including a vacation home in Vail, Colorado, and property in Houston.

He was also ordered to serve two years of supervised release and to pay some $ 1,788,753 in restitution to the United States.

Prairie Village, Kansas: Joel Jerome Tucker, described by authorities as a “well-dressed thief,” pleaded guilty to engaging in two separate schemes linked to millions of dollars in bogus payday loans and tax evasion totaling more than $ 8 million. dollars.

Tucker, working through various companies, handled the payday loan companies. Its company names have changed over the years; the main company was eData Solutions. eData, formally registered on July 29, 2009, did not grant loans directly to borrowers; it collected information about loan applications, called leads, and sold those leads to its approximately 70 payday lender clients. As a loan manager, eData has also provided software for payday lenders. Tucker and the other eData owners sold the business to the Wyandotte Indian Tribe in 2012.

Despite the sale of his interest in eData, Tucker kept a 7.8 million lead file with detailed customer information. He also obtained data regarding overdue payday loans that eData had acquired from a number of different payday lending clients.

Tucker used these files to create forged debt portfolios. He admitted to engaging in a fraudulent debt scheme from 2014 to 2016. This scheme involved the marketing, distribution and sale of fake debt portfolios. Tucker defrauded third-party debt collectors and millions of individuals listed as debtors by selling fake debt portfolios. Tucker received up to $ 7.3 million from the sale of fake debt portfolios. Tucker also admitted to executing a bankruptcy-related fraud scheme in 2015.

For the 2014 to 2016 tax years, neither Tucker personally nor any of his corporations filed any federal returns. He told IRS agents he had no income and was living on the borrowed money. Tucker actually used nominee bank accounts to conceal income and assets, and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on personal living expenses such as vehicles, charter jets, travel and entertainment and a residence. Tucker also submitted a form to the IRS in which he failed to list as an asset his Vail Mountain Club membership, for which he received $ 275,000 in 2016.

Tucker is to pay $ 8,057,079.95 in restitution to the IRS, as well as a government donation of $ 5,000 as part of the transfer of the stolen goods across state lines. He is also punishable by up to 20 years in prison without parole.

Newport News, Virginia: Preparator Angela C. Harper has pleaded guilty to aiding and assisting in preparing a false statement.

Harper owned At Ease Tax Services, which she operated from her home and hotel rooms locally. Between 2014 and 2018, she falsified statements by claiming fraudulent credits and deductions on behalf of her customers to inflate customer refunds. Harper did not sign these statements as a paid preparer; nor did she provide copies of statements to clients, even when requested.

The sentence is pronounced on January 4. Harper faces a maximum of three years in prison, as well as a period of supervised release, restitution and financial penalties.

Atlanta: Gerald D. Harris, 51, former supervisor of the DeKalb County Tax Commissioner’s Office, pleaded guilty to accepting bribes to illegally register vehicles and then attempting to blackmail a payer bribes by threatening to inform the FBI.

The Motor Vehicle Division of the DeKalb County Tax Commissioner’s Office manages all aspects of motor vehicle registrations. From July 2017 to November 2019, Harris was the Supervisor of Tax Label Clerks, overseeing clerks who processed motor vehicle registrations and renewals.

Between approximately mid-2018 and November 2019, Harris accepted at least $ 30,000 in bribes from customers to illegally register vehicles or renew vehicle registrations. He was fired on November 18 and soon after attempted to blackmail one of the people who had bribed him.

Guilford, Connecticut: Accountant Louis DeMaio pleaded guilty to offenses of tax evasion and obstruction.

DeMaio was employed as an accountant in East Haven, Connecticut, and from around 2010 to 2018 he also operated Almatt LLC, a temp agency that supplied day laborers to construction companies. Although DeMaio listed another person on paper as the owner of Almatt, he did own and effectively run her.

As part of Almatt’s operating procedures, it billed construction companies for the cost of labor supplied and, from payments received from companies, paid employees. Almatt and DeMaio then provided W-2 employees indicating that Almatt had made the required federal tax withholdings. Almatt and DeMaio actually did not withhold taxes and subsequently failed to pay those withholdings to the IRS. Almatt also never filed annual or quarterly 941 tax returns.

He also issued checks from Almatt to himself and to members of his family who did not work at the company. From 2010 to 2018, DeMaio and his family received over $ 2.5 million from the company; DeMaio has not reported any of these distributions in its federal income tax returns.

In 2015, the IRS launched a civilian review of Almatt and then expanded the review to assess the completeness of DeMaio’s personal income tax returns. When the IRS confronted DeMaio about his inability to report income paid to him by Almatt, DeMaio fabricated a story that a significant portion of the payments he received from Almatt were loan repayments from the assumed owner. DeMaio provided an IRS tax agent and other investigators with a false notarized document to substantiate his story.

The tax loss is $ 1,132,398. DeMaio agreed to pay a full restitution, as well as interest and penalties. He pleaded guilty to one count of tax evasion, punishable by up to five years in prison, and one count of obstructing and obstructing the proper application of Internal Revenue laws, punishable by a maximum of three years. Sentencing is set for November 3.