Alabama Tax Preparers Sentenced to Prison
for Preparing False Tax Returns

Judge Mark Fuller of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama sentenced Lutoyua N. Thompson and Melinda M. Lambert to prison today for their involvement in a fraudulent tax return preparation scheme, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced. Thompson was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Lambert was sentenced to six months in prison and six months of home confinement. Both had previously pleaded guilty to aiding and assisting the preparation of a false tax return.

According to the court documents, both Thompson and Lambert were employed by James E. Moss as tax return preparers at a tax return preparation business known as Flash Tax, located in Montgomery, Ala. Thompson was employed at Flash Tax from December 2003 through June 2005 and prepared approximately 600 tax returns. Lambert was employed at Flash Tax from December 2004 through January 2007 and prepared approximately 900 tax returns. The majority of the returns prepared by Lambert and Thompson contained false information designed to illegally obtain higher refunds to which clients were not entitled. Lambert and Thompson admitted that Moss trained them to prepare false tax returns in order to obtain higher tax refunds for Flash Tax customers by inflating or deflating specific numbers and/or by adding totally fictitious numbers to the returns.

On Nov. 2, 2011, Moss was convicted by an Alabama jury of conspiring to defraud the United States and of aiding and assisting the preparation of false tax returns. His sentencing is currently set for March 13, 2012.

John A. DiCicco, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Tax Division commended the IRS special agents who investigated this case and Tax Division trial attorneys Charles M. Edgar, Jr., Thomas J. Krepp, and Michelle M. Petersen who prosecuted the case.

Additional information about the Tax Division and its enforcement efforts is available at www.usdoj.gov/tax.