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FRESNO, Calif. —Leticia Bedolla, 39, of Porterville, pleaded guilty today to aiding and assisting in the preparation and presentation of a false and fraudulent tax return, United States Attorney McGregor W. Scott announced.
According to court documents, Bedolla operated a tax preparation service called Leticia Tax Service, located in Porterville, California. Bedolla prepared and electronically filed tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on behalf of her customers. In finalizing the customers' federal income tax returns for electronic filing, Bedolla would sometimes fabricate amounts of deductions and deductible expenses without informing her customers she was doing so. In other instances, Bedolla would ask a general question about a customer's personal expenses and then mischaracterize the information on the customer's federal income tax return to improperly claim a deduction or tax credit. As a result of Bedolla's preparation and submission to the IRS of false and fraudulent federal income tax returns, Bedolla caused her customers to claim tax deductions and credits to which the customers were not entitled. This resulted in the IRS paying out excessive refunds to Bedolla's customers or not collecting additional tax that would have been due and owing from Bedolla's customers. Bedolla's conduct resulted in a tax loss to the IRS of approximately $105,747.
This case was the product of an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigations Division. Assistant United States Attorney Henry Z. Carbajal III is prosecuting the case.
Bedolla is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Dale A. Drozd on February 4, 2019. Bedolla faces a maximum statutory penalty of three years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables.