Sometimes, it pays to have a tax preparer with some courage! A Jackson, Mississippi, real estate broker pleaded guilty a false tax return on behalf of his business, Gulf States Royalty, Ltd. Jeffrey Randall owned and operated an oil and gas lease company, Gulf States Royalty, Ltd and was not satisfied with his tax professional’s work, so the two decided to doctor up a new return for Randall. As a result, Randall’s 2008 return reported more than $2 million dollars in false business expenses on Gulf States’s 2008 corporate income tax return (Form 1120). Randall then signed the false return and directed his tax return preparer to submit it to the IRS. In total, Randall caused a tax loss to the IRS of $824,036.72. It’s expected he’ll face up to three years in prison, restitution, and monetary penalties.
David Aaron and Russell Ultes, co-owners of Marlin Construction Group LLC (Marlin), in Fort Meyers, Florida allegedly diverted millions of dollars of customer checks made payable to Marlin, by cashing them at check-cashing businesses in nearby counties. Aaron and Ultes used the cash to pay personal expenses and caused Marlin’s books and records to falsely underreport the business’s gross receipts and income for those years. Aaron and Ultes provided false information to Marlin’s tax return preparers, resulting in the preparation of false 2018 and 2019 corporate income tax returns (Forms 1120S) that did not report all of the gross receipts and income. They’ll face mandatory prison time, penalties, and restitution.
A Georgia man pleaded guilty to evading the proper assessment of his personal federal income taxes. According to court documents, from 1999 to 2021, Samir Patel of Statesboro, Georgia, was a tax return preparer at a national return preparation business. In 2015, Patel purchased a franchise of the business in Claxton, Georgia. As the owner, he hired, trained and supervised tax preparers, and continued to prepare returns for customers. Patel, however, willfully filed false income tax returns that underreported his income and evaded proper assessment of his personal taxes for years 2015, 2016, and 2017.
Sincerely,
