Mequon Accountant Sentenced for Tax Scheme

Matthew D. Krueger, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, announced that Randy D. Usow (age 63) of Mequon, Wisconsin, was sentenced in federal court for stealing more than $800,000 from the federal government by filing false tax returns in the name of one of his clients and for using the identity of that client to help commit his theft.

U.S. District Judge Pamela Pepper sentenced Usow to 30 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered him to pay more than $600,000 in restitution.

Usow, who operated an accounting business in Mequon known as Randy Usow Accounting, Inc., prepared and filed state and federal tax returns for third parties. The charges against Usow are based on his preparing and filing of false tax returns for one of his clients and his wife in which Usow fraudulently claimed refunds the clients were not entitled to and then diverting the fraudulent refunds to himself. 

To conceal his activity, Usow provided clients with a different version of the tax returns that reflected the correct refund to which the clients were entitled. 

As part of his scheme, Usow opened a bank account in the name of his client without the client’s knowledge or consent. Usow then directed the IRS to send a fraudulent refund to this account. After receiving the refund, Usow transferred a portion of the refund to a second bank account he had opened in the name “US Government, LLC.”  Usow then used this account to pay the clients the smaller refund the clients were expecting.

During the period from April 2011 through May 2015, Usow filed at least four false federal income tax returns, fraudulently seeking more than $800,000 in federal income tax refunds and diverted those funds to himself.

This matter was investigated by the Criminal investigation Division of the Internal Revenue and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Matthew L. Jacobs.

#   #   #   #