Florida Man Sentenced to Prison for Filing False Tax Returns

A Port St. Lucie, Florida, man was sentenced to 84 months in prison today for filing false tax returns on behalf of his clients and for failing to report his true income on his own income tax returns, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Ariana Fajardo Orshan for the Southern District of Florida.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, from 2012 through 2015, Richard Maurival prepared income tax returns for clients that claimed false education credits, business expenses, and other deductions in order to inflate by thousands of dollars tax refunds issued by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). In addition to filing fraudulent income tax returns for his clients, Maurival falsified his own returns, underreporting the fees he earned in his tax preparation business for tax years 2012, 2013, and 2014.

In addition to the term of imprisonment, U.S. District Judge James Ivan Cohn for the Southern District of Florida ordered Maurival to serve one year of supervised release and pay $267,995 in restitution to the IRS. 

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman and U.S. Attorney Fajardo Orshan commended special agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation, who investigated the case, and Tax Division Trial Attorney Grace Albinson and Assistant U.S. Attorney Diana Acosta, who prosecuted the case.