VIRGINIA
A federal judge sentence two Memphis residents to prison today for conspiring to defraud the IRS by preparing false tax returns, according to officials.
Jeremy Blanchard, 35, and Erik Pittman, 35, both of Memphis, were sentenced to serve five years and 10 months and two years and nine months in prison, respectively, officials announced.
Blanchard and Pittman previously plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and one count of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false tax returns. The defendants were ordered to pay $549,000 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
“While most tax return preparers provide excellent service to their clients, it only takes a few dishonest return preparers to give the industry a black eye,” said Special Agent in Charge Thomas Jankowski of the IRS-Criminal Investigation’s (CI) Washington, D.C., Field Office. “IRS-CI works year round to investigate dishonest return preparers and protect the American taxpayers’ money. Return preparers must comply with the same tax obligations as the clients that they serve. No one is above the law.”
Two “Mo’ Money” tax return preparers plead guilty to preparing false tax returns for customers, admitting that what they did caused losses to the IRS of more than $250,000 but less than $500,000, according to officials.
Both plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and one count of aiding and assisting in the preparation of a false tax return, officials said.
According to court documents, Blanchard and Pittman along with others prepared numerous false tax returns for the 2011 tax year for customers of their tax return preparation business.
Blanchard and Pittman were preparers in Mo’ Money Taxes, which operated three locations in the Richmond, Virginia area.
Blanchard and Pittman admitted that they created and inflated fictitious and fraudulent tax credits, including the Earned Income Credit and the American Opportunity credit, to claim tax refunds that customers were not entitled to receive.
Another participant in this scheme, Corey Taylor, 25, of Richmond, was sentenced on March 22 to serve 20 months in prison for one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and one count of aiding and assisting in the preparation of a false tax return.