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Press Release

U.S. Seeks to Shut Down Texas Tax Preparer Whose Customers Work Overseas for Defense Contractors

For Immediate Release
Office of Public Affairs
Southlake Woman Allegedly Falsified Customer Returns and Provided False Information to IRS to Impede Audits

The United States sued a Southlake, Texas woman last night, seeking to bar her from preparing federal tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today. The civil injunction suit was filed against Karena Mondrianh in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

The government complaint alleges that Mondrianh prepares fraudulent tax returns that understate customers’ taxable income by inventing – sometimes without the customer’s knowledge – false business expenses and by falsely claiming that a customer’s income is exempt from tax. The suit alleges that most of Mondrianh’s customers work overseas for defense contractors. 

The complaint further alleges that Mondrianh has provided false information to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in improper attempts to delay IRS audits of customers. She allegedly urged one customer to lie to an IRS agent in order to prevent an IRS audit.

Return preparer fraud is one of the IRS’s Dirty Dozen Tax Scams for 2013.  In the past decade, the Justice Department’s Tax Division has obtained injunctions against hundreds of unscrupulous tax preparers. Information about these cases is available on the Justice Department website at www.justice.gov/tax.

Updated September 15, 2014

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Press Release Number: 13-690