Federal Court Bars North Carolina Man from Promoting Alleged Tax Fraud Scheme

WASHINGTON – A federal court has permanently barred a North Carolina man from selling an alleged tax fraud scheme, the Justice Department announced today. According to the government complaint , Andrew DeDominicis (formerly known as Andrew Brown) of Dallas, N.C., promoted the formation and use of a “corporation sole” to help his customers improperly avoid paying federal income taxes. The civil injunction order, to which DeDominicis consented, was entered by Judge Martin Reidinger of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina.

According to the complaint, some states authorize an entity known as a corporation sole to enable religious leaders to hold property and conduct business for the benefit of a legitimate religious entity. The complaint states that DeDominicis falsely informed his customers that their corporations sole would be treated as churches and will not need to file federal income tax returns.

The court also required DeDominicis to give a copy of the injunction order to each customer who bought a corporation sole from him and to remove from his websites any material promoting the use of corporations sole.

In the past decade, the Justice Department’s Tax Division has obtained hundreds of injunctions to stop the promotion of tax-fraud schemes like corporations sole. Details of these cases are available on the Justice Department website .