U.S. Court Bars California Man from Selling or Administering Pension and Employee Welfare-Benefit Plans

WASHINGTON – A federal court in Los Angeles has permanently barred William Alexander of Pasadena, Calif., and his two companies, Retirement Plan Services Inc. and Lyons Pensions Inc., from selling or administering pension plans or employee welfare-benefit plans, the Justice Department announced today. The court’s order, to which Alexander and his companies consented, also prohibits Alexander from preparing federal tax returns for others for a fee or representing others before the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

In August 2010, the Justice Department sued Alexander, alleging that he promoted tax fraud schemes involving sham pension plans and welfare-benefit plans. According to the government complaint, Alexander helped small business owners create bogus pension plans so they could re-characterize their salaries as pension-plan contributions. Alexander then allegedly caused the sham contributions to be refunded to his customers through fake loans from the plans. According to the complaint, Alexander advised his customers that they could deduct the purported contributions in order to reduce or eliminate their federal income taxes. The complaint also alleged that Alexander fraudulently misrepresented his customers’ non-deductible personal expenses as deductible pension-plan contributions. The government alleged that Alexander’s promotion of these schemes cost the government at least $30 million.

The civil injunction order also requires Alexander to provide copies of the court’s order to anyone to whom he provided tax advice since Jan. 1, 2005, and for whom he has or can readily obtain a mail or e-mail address.

In the last decade, the Justice Department’s Tax Division has obtained hundreds of injunctions to stop tax fraud promoters and unscrupulous tax return preparers. Information about these cases is available on the Justice Department website .