Salisbury Return Preparer Sentenced To Prison For Tax Fraud
Offense Draws 12 Month Sentence, One Year Supervised Release
Greensburg, N.C. – United States Attorney Ripley Rand announced today that BOBBY TERRILL PARKS of Salisbury was sentenced in federal court in Greensboro, North Carolina, on Friday March 11, 2011, for fraudulent tax preparation, a violation of Title 26, United States Code, Section 7602(2).
United States District Judge William L. Osteen, Jr. sentenced PARKS to 12 months and 1 day in prison, followed by one year of supervised release with six months of home confinement. PARKS was also ordered to pay $140,215 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service.
Evidence presented in court documents established that PARKS was employed by Rapid Tax, a tax preparation firm located in Salisbury, North Carolina from 2004 through 2007. PARKS met with clients obtaining tax information, then prepared and electronically filed the returns with the Internal Revenue Service. PARKS prepared approximately 2,170 returns during the years of his employment.
An analysis of some of the returns prepared by PARKS by the IRS Fraud Detection Center revealed a pattern of suspicious deductions and credits that were statistically improbable. Due to the suspicious deductions and credits, IRS-Criminal Investigation special agents interviewed some of the taxpayers and confirmed that PARKS had made false claims on returns for charitable contributions, education credits, job expenses and other items.
The case was investigated by agents of the IRS-Criminal Investigative Division. Assistant United States Attorney Harry Hobgood of the Greensboro office prosecuted the case.
