FEDERAL COURT PERMANENTLY BARS TEXAS MAN FROM PREPARING TAX RETURNS

Court Finds Repeated Misconduct and Bogus Claims for the Fuel Tax Credit

WASHINGTON – The Justice Department announced today that a federal judge in Dallas has permanently barred Lennon Madzima from preparing federal tax returns for others. The court found Madzima repeatedly understated his customers’ income tax liabilities “by negligently and willfully claiming frivolous and meritless federal fuel tax credits that had no realistic possibility of being sustained on the merits” and “by negligently and willfully inflating or fabricating telephone excise tax refund credits.” Madzima’s false claims for federal fuel tax credits have appeared on over 1,100 returns and totaled over $1 million. Fraudulently claiming the fuel tax credit is one of the IRS’s Dirty Dozen tax scams for 2009.

The permanent injunction order requires Madzima to give the Justice Department a list of his customers’ names, Social Security numbers, addresses, and telephone numbers.

In the past year, the Justice Department has obtained injunctions shutting down several tax preparers who allegedly claimed bogus fuel credits.

Acting Assistant Attorney General John DiCicco thanked Justice Department trial attorney Daniel Applegate, who handled the case, as well as Shauna Henline of the IRS’s Small Business/Self Employed Division who investigated it.

Over the past decade, the Justice Department has obtained injunctions against more than 420 tax preparers and ax-fraud promoters. Information about these cases is available on the Justice Department website.