Federal Court Permanently Bars Detroit Woman from Preparing Federal Tax Returns

WASHINGTON – A federal court has permanently barred Tracey R. Randolph from preparing federal tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today. The civil injunction order, to which Randolph consented, was signed by Judge Mark Goldsmith of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. The order requires Randolph to provide the government with a list of all persons for whom she prepared returns for tax years 2003 through 2009.

The government complaint in the case alleged that Randolph of Detroit included fabricated deductions for charitable donations, employee business expenses and other expenses on tax returns that she prepared since 2006. The complaint further alleged that Randolph instructed her customers under audit by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to give false statements and fabricated documents to the IRS in order to give the false impression that the bogus deductions claimed on the returns were legitimate.

The same federal court previously entered a permanent injunction against Machista Choice. According to the government complaint, Choice of River Rouge, Mich., was Randolph’s former business partner with whom she worked under the business names “Nedra’s Way Tax Service” and “Olivia’s Way Tax Service.” The complaint alleged that Choice also prepared tax returns that included fabricated deductions.

Return preparer fraud is one of the IRS’s “Dirty Dozen” tax scams for 2011. In the past decade, the Justice Department’s Tax Division has obtained injunctions against hundreds of tax return preparers and tax fraud promoters. Information about these cases is available on the Justice Department website .