LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Two Louisville area tax preparers were sentenced to prison for a multiyear tax fraud scheme.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 41-year-old Angel De La Rosa of Jasper, Indiana, and 34-year-old Yaimy Real of Louisville pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, aiding and assisting in the preparation and presentation of a false and fraudulent tax return and filing false tax returns.
De La Rosa was sentenced to four years in prison and ordered to pay $15,005,149.83 in restitution. Real was sentenced to three years and ordered to pay $15,019,543.84 in restitution.
De La Rosa and Real operated "De La Rosa Multiservices," a tax return preparation business in Jasper and Louisville.
Officials said from January 2018 through July 2021 they prepared 5,892 fraudulent federal tax returns. This caused an estimated $10,577,612 in tax loss to the Internal Revenue Service.
The scheme involved filing returns that falsely claimed the American Opportunity Tax Credit (AOTC). But the institutions did not qualify as eligible educational institutions.
De La Rosa and Real used this to generate inflated refunds for clients that were not entitled to receive them, officials said.
They tried to conceal their fraud by creating and submitting false records. Officials said they acted as "ghost" return preparers when preparing returns for their clients.
De La Rosa and Real collected $736,500 in fees from their clients through the scheme.
"Due to the defendants' deceit, the United States lost over $10 million in unjustified refunds," said Tom Wheeler, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, in a news release. "The defendants compounded their fraud by creating and submitting false records during the IRS's investigation. Preparing or filing false tax returns is a serious crime that deprives the government of vital revenue for public services, and today’s sentence sends a clear warning to anyone considering such fraudulent conduct."
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