US FILES LAWSUIT IN MIAMI TO BLOCK PROMOTION OF TAX FRAUD SCHEME

Promoters Allegedly Helped Customers Seek More Than $3 Million
in Fraudulent Tax Refunds

            WASHINGTON - The United States has sued Sharon Angulo and Claudia Zuloaga to bar them from promoting an alleged tax fraud scheme and from preparing federal tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today.

            The civil injunction suit, filed in the Southern District of Florida, alleges that Angulo and Zuloaga, both of Miami, help customers use Internal  Revenue Service (IRS) Forms 1099-OID to report fictitious income tax withholding.  According to the government complaint, the customers file federal tax returns claiming tax refunds based on the fake withholding. The complaint states that the defendants have prepared or assisted in the preparation of at least 19 tax returns reporting false withholding and claiming fraudulent tax refunds totaling more than $3 million.
           
            The government’s complaint asks the court to require Angulo and Zuloaga to pay the U.S. Treasury the funds they received from customers who paid them a percentage of the tax refunds received through the scheme. The complaint also asks the court to order the defendants to provide the government with a list of all persons who have purchased any products, services or advice from Angulo and Zuloaga in the past three years as part of the scheme.

            Claiming bogus tax refunds based on false Forms 1099-OID 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 fraud promoters and unscrupulous tax preparers. Information about these cases is available on the Justice Department website.