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Press Release

Fraudulent Tax Return Preparer Sentenced to Prison

For Immediate Release
Office of Public Affairs

WASHINGTON - Rodrick Williams, a former tax return preparer from District Heights, Md., was sentenced to 24 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Roger W. Titus for preparing false tax returns for customers, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced today.

In May 2008, Williams pleaded guilty to conspiracy to impede the IRS. Williams’s co-defendant, DaJuan Jackson was convicted in November 2008, by a Greenbelt, Md., jury of eight counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation and presentation of false tax returns.

According to the evidence introduced in the plea agreement and at trial, Williams and Jackson, both currently of Atlanta, prepared tax returns at a branch office of American Tax Associates Inc. (ATA), located in a Run ’N Shoot gym in District Heights. Williams and Jackson were the two main preparers in the branch office, which was responsible for preparing almost 1000 tax returns per year at the height of its business in 2004.

Williams cooperated with the government, and at trial, he testified that he and Jackson devised a scheme to place false information on the tax returns of ATA clients. In particular, Williams and Jackson falsified itemized deductions and business expenses so clients could fraudulently obtain bigger refunds.

Jackson was sentenced to 51 months in prison by Judge Titus on Feb. 19, 2009.

Acting Assistant Attorney General John DiCicco commended the IRS special agents who investigated the case, as well as Tax Division trial attorneys Jerrod Patterson and Shawn Noud who prosecuted the case.

More information about the Justice Department’s Tax Division and its enforcement efforts is available at http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/.

Updated September 15, 2014

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Press Release Number: 09-152