essex county, n.J., tax preparer sentenced to 18 months in prison
for filing false tax returns for herself and her clients
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
November 20, 2012 |
NEWARK, N.J. – An Essex County, N.J., woman who owned a tax preparation business was sentenced today to 18 months in prison for her filing false tax returns on behalf of her clients and herself, resulting in a tax loss of nearly $200,000, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
Alicia Barnes, 50, of Irvington, N.J., a former corrections officer for New Jersey and self-employed owner of a tax preparation business, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Esther Salas to an Information charging her with one count of willfully aiding and assisting in the preparation and filing of false personal federal tax returns and one count of willfully subscribing to false personal federal income tax returns. Judge Salas imposed the sentence today in Newark federal court.
According to documents filed in this case and statements in court:
Barnes is the sole owner and operator of Just Taxes Unlimited LLC, a tax return preparation business located in Orange, N.J. During tax years 2006 through 2008, Barnes filed 42 false tax returns on behalf of clients by taking deductions for charitable contributions and unreimbursed employee expenses without a basis for doing so.
Barnes admitted that for tax years 2006 through 2008, she also filed U.S. Individual Income Tax Returns in which she purported to report all of her income, but in which she failed to report, or substantially underreported, the income she earned through Just Taxes Unlimited. As part of her guilty plea, Barnes agreed to make full restitution to the IRS.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Salas sentenced Barnes to one year of supervised release. Barnes resigned from the N.J. Department of Corrections on May 31, 2009.
U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of IRS – Criminal Investigation, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge Shantelle P. Kitchen, for the investigation leading to today’s sentence.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jane H. Yoon of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Health Care and Government Fraud Unit in Newark.
12-406
Defense counsel: Brooke Barnett Esq., Newark
