Plus, a Las Vegas tax preparer pleaded guilty to filing bogus returns, and a New Jersey tax preparer pleaded guilty to tax evasion.
Naperville man convicted of theft 25 years ago charged again with swindling woman’s estate [Chicago Tribune]
Raymond Parcon, who went to federal prison 25 years ago for embezzling more than $1 million from Arthur Andersen, has been hit with new fraud charges accusing him of swindling a woman’s estate out of nearly $90,000.
Parcon, 67, was charged with wire fraud in U.S. District Court on Jan. 22. Here’s why Parcon is again in trouble with authorities:
Parcon operated a tax preparation business in Naperville [Illinois] and prepared returns for the victim’s estate after she died in 2015.
In April 2016, Parcon created a phony document claiming the estate owed about $66,000 in taxes to the Internal Revenue Service and gave it to the executor of the estate, who was the woman’s nephew.
Parcon told the executor he’d paid the tax bill through his accounting business, even though he hadn’t paid a penny because the bill was made up, the charges alleged. The executor then cut a check to Parcon for the $66,000, according to the charges.
Later that year, Parcon gave the executor a fabricated letter purporting to be from the Illinois Department of Revenue claiming the estate owed the state nearly $13,000 in additional taxes, according to the charge. Again, Parcon told the executor that he’d paid the outstanding bill, and in July 2016 he accepted a $12,944 check as reimbursement from the estate, according to the charge.
Parcon repeated the phony tax claims three more times in 2017 and 2018, collecting a total of about $10,300 in supposed back payments from the estate, the charge alleged.
Judge postpones sentencing for Nxivm accountant Kathy Russell indefinitely [New York Post]
Kathy Russell was set to be sentenced in Brooklyn federal court this week after pleading guilty last April to visa fraud for her role in the cult-like upstate organization.
But her lawyers have asked to push it back to April 21 while waiting for the probation department to issue a recommendation for Russell’s sentence. Judge Nicholas Garaufis agreed to move it, but did not set a new date.
Russell, 62, was arrested alongside Nxivm leader Keith Raniere and a slew of other top members in 2018 following bombshell allegations that women in the purported self-help group were being kept as “slaves” and were forced to have sex with Raniere.
She ultimately admitted to the visa fraud charge for knowingly presenting phony documents to a consulate in Mexico to bring a Nxivm member into the U.S. under false pretenses.
Accountant must serve jail time, repay thousands embezzled from Roanoke companies [Roanoke Times]
Amanda Garrison, a bookkeeper who stole more than $26,000 from two passenger service companies in Roanoke, VA, will have to pay restitution and serve 30 days in jail.
Garrison, 40, pleaded guilty in September to one count of embezzlement, a charge that came about when she did accounting work for both Roanoke Airport Transportation Services and Yellow Cab of Roanoke, which share the same owners.
Authorities said on Jan. 21 that Garrison wrote 32 duplicate paychecks for herself, and one of the businesses’ co-owners claimed that during that period, he began getting notifications from the IRS that tax obligations hadn’t been met—payments Garrison reportedly told him she had submitted.
Las Vegas tax preparer pleads guilty to filing false tax returns [Justice Department]
Martha Williams pleaded guilty on Jan. 21 to two counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation and filing of a false tax return.
Williams owned MJW and Associated (formerly known as Across the Board Management), a tax preparation business in Las Vegas. Between 2009 and 2014, Williams prepared thousands of tax returns on behalf of clients of MJW and Associates. For more than 75% of her clients, Williams prepared a false tax return that inflated the taxpayer’s refund by including fictitious deductions related to businesses that did not actually exist.
To make these businesses appear legitimate, Williams used the IRS’s website to apply for and receive employer identification numbers for fictitious businesses. As a result of these fictitious tax returns, Williams caused at least $529,782 in tax losses by filing false returns on behalf of her clients.
North Brunswick tax preparer pleads guilty to tax evasion [Bridgewater Courier News]
Juan Solano, who owned J&C Solano Tax Service, a tax return preparation business in North Brunswick, NJ, pleaded guilty in federal court to income tax evasion on Jan. 22.
Solano, 45, pleaded guilty to one count of personal income tax evasion on his 2016 tax return.
According to authorities, Solano reported in 2016 that he earned $113,263 in gross receipts from the tax preparation business. In pleading guilty, Solano admitted that he failed to report an additional $318,228 in gross receipts that he earned from J&C during 2016. The total gross receipts from the business were $371,858.
In addition, Solano admitted that he filed false personal tax returns and evaded his taxes for the years 2013, 2014, and 2015.
Naugatuck tax preparer pleads guilty to filing false tax returns [Justice Department]
Ana Nunez, who owned Nunez MultiServices LLC, a tax return preparation service located in Naugatuck, CT, pleaded guilty to two counts of aiding and assisting the filing of a false tax return on Jan. 7.
From tax year 2011 and continuing at least through tax year 2014, Nunez, 48, also known as Ana Pagoaga, falsified information on tax returns she prepared for clients and caused the returns to be filed with the IRS. On the returns, Nunez routinely inflated income or created fictitious income, falsified expenses, including education and child care expenses, and falsified deductions, such as business mileage.
As far as the market is concerned, more than half of the company’s book value is bogus, due to overstated assets, understated liabilities, or some combination of the two. [