Former IRS Revenue Officer Sentenced To Six Months’ Imprisonment For Tax Fraud Scheme

Earlier today, James C. Brewer, a former Revenue Officer of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) who was assigned to the Edison, New Jersey IRS office before his arrest, was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment and ordered to pay $73,548.00 in restitution. Brewer pled guilty on September 19, 2016 to filing or preparing false tax returns, wire fraud and mail fraud, all in connection with a scheme to falsify tax returns he filed on behalf of himself and others and enrich himself with inflated refunds from those returns. Brewer also pled guilty to committing perjury in United States Tax Court in 2012 in a successful effort to obtain a tax credit for himself to which he was not entitled.

The sentence was announced by Bridget M. Rohde, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York; Jonathan D. Larsen, Special Agent-in-Charge, Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), Newark Field Office; Rodney A. Davis, Special Agent-in-Charge, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), Washington Field Division.

“James Brewer engaged in a tax fraud and identity theft scheme in which he cheated the very tax system he was entrusted to uphold,” stated Acting United States Attorney Rohde. “Today’s sentence reminds government employees they will be held to the level of integrity expected of them, and assures honest taxpayers that no one who commits fraud is above the law.” Ms. Rohde expressed her grateful appreciation to the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey, the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Nevada, the IRS-CI, Las Vegas Field Office and the Treasury Inspector General for TIGTA, Denver Field Division for their assistance in this case.

According to court filings and statements made during the guilty plea, as part of a scheme to fraudulently reduce his taxable income and increase his tax refunds, for four tax years Brewer failed to report any income he received in connection with his unauthorized tax preparation business, which he operated in violation of IRS rules; underreported the gross receipts he earned from an Internet retail business, which he also operated in violation of IRS rules; and claimed false dependents, all on federal tax returns he prepared and filed on his own behalf.

As part of his unauthorized tax preparation business, Brewer also engaged in a multi-year scheme in which he prepared and filed false tax returns for others. Brewer listed false dependents and false deductions on these returns, among other materially false information, in order to fraudulently cause his clients to receive a refund to which they were otherwise not entitled or fraudulently inflate their refunds. In doing so, Brewer listed the names and social security numbers of various individuals on those tax returns as dependents without those individuals’ authorization, including those of two minor children. As part of this scheme, Brewer also diverted a portion of those clients’ refunds to himself, in some cases without his clients’ authorization or knowledge.

Finally, in an effort to fraudulently obtain for himself a tax credit for first time homebuyers, Brewer lied under oath about his residency when he testified in a matter in the United States Tax Court.

The government’s case is being handled by the Office’s Public Integrity Section. Assistant United States Attorneys Marisa Seifan and Moira Kim Penza are in charge of the prosecution.

The Defendant:

JAMES C. BREWER

Age: 40

Staten Island, New York

E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 15 CR 209 (PKC)