NEVADA FEDERAL COURT PERMANENTLY BARS LAS VEGAS MAN FROM PROMOTING SHAM-TRUST SCHEME

WASHINGTON. – A federal court in Las Vegas has permanently barred James A. DiLullo of Las Vegas from preparing tax returns and promoting a fraudulent tax scheme that concealed his customers’ funds through the creation of sham trusts, the Justice Department announced today.

The government complaint in the case alleged that DiLullo sold sham trusts to help customers conceal their income and assets and under-report income on tax returns. DiLullo allegedly charged customers between $1,000 and $2,000 plus an annual fee to participate in the scheme. Additionally, DiLullo allegedly obstructed Internal Revenue Service (IRS) investigations of his scheme.

Papers the government filed in the case showed that DiLullo promoted the tax scheme in Calif., Colo., Kan., Iowa, Nev., Texas, Wash., and W. Va. The complaint states DiLullo’s scheme has cost the U.S. Treasury over $2.25 million since 2002.

The injunction order requires DiLullo to give the government a list of the names, addresses, and Social Security numbers of customers for whom he prepared income tax documents over the past ten years

Trust misuse is included in the IRS’s 2007 list of the Dirty Dozen tax scams. Since 2001, the Justice Department's Tax Division has obtained more than 285 injunctions to stop the promotion of tax fraud schemes and the preparation of fraudulent returns. Information about these cases is available on the Justice Department website, as is information about the Justice Department's Tax Division.