Beware of Fraudulent Tax Return Preparers and Tax Schemes Promoters

BIRMINGHAM – With the tax deadline quickly approaching for individual taxpayers, it is important to be aware of tax scams as well as the importance of being compliant in filing and paying federal taxes timely. Tax cheats are becoming more sophisticated in their schemes and are finding new ways to cheat the system as well as gaining access to your personal and tax information.

“As the tax deadline approaches it is important that our citizens know that tax fraud and schemes is an increasingly serious problem,” U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town said.  “The U.S. Attorney’s Office and IRS-Criminal Investigation will continue to aggressively pursue those who attempt to defraud America’s tax system and cheat the public treasury.”

 “We have IRS Special Agents located here in Alabama working around the clock to uncover, stop and work with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in prosecuting tax crimes. With the filing season coming to an end, it’s important that the public be aware of various tax schemes and report the scheme to either the IRS or their local police department,” said Thomas J. Holloman, Special Agent in Charge of IRS-CI, Atlanta Field Office. 

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Alabama, along with agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation and other law enforcement partners, is actively engaged in investigating various ways of committing tax fraud as well as combatting those criminals willing to steal identities and commit tax fraud for the unsuspecting public. As of last filing season, multiple tax investigations have been ongoing in our jurisdiction. Approximately 8 convicted individuals have been sentenced as a part of fraudulent tax schemes since May of 2018 in the Northern District of Alabama. The following are highlights of some of those cases:

Pamela Whitt

On November 27, 2018, Pamela Whitt of Bessemer, AL, was sentenced to two years in federal prison, to be followed by one year of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution of $146,177 to the IRS for filing false tax returns to the IRS. Whitt made false representations on her 2011 and 2012 individual tax returns by willfully underreporting receipts from her business and further falsely listed her filing status as single.  The receipts related to over 1,000 federal income tax returns prepared.  Whitt also filed false tax returns for her clients, to inflate the amount of tax refund they would receive.

Joel Gilbert & David Roberson

On October 24, 2018, Former Alabama State Representative David Roberson was sentenced to two years, six months in federal prison, to be followed by one year of supervised release and a $25,000 fine and Joel Gilbert of was sentenced to five years in federal prison, to be followed by two years of supervised release and a $25,000 fine with 200 hours of community service for their involvement in a Birmingham bribery scheme in which Gilbert bribed Robinson with a $375,000 contract paid to him through his non-profit called the Oliver Robinson Foundation.  Robinson pleaded guilty to a tax charge and helped assist in the jury trial against Gilbert.

Patrice Anderson

On July 9, 2019, Patrice Anderson of Fairburn, GA, was sentenced to five years in federal prison, to be followed by one year of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution of $86,703 to the IRS for preparing filing fraudulent tax returns. Anderson filed tax returns claiming refundable credits to which her clients were not entitled so that they could receive much larger refunds from the government than they were eligible to receive. In return, Anderson would charge the clients abnormally high fees – up to $3,000 per fraudulent return – to file their taxes, according to testimony. The court determined that Anderson, who operated Queen’s Fast Tax from 2009 through 2012, had filed tax returns claiming more than $3.6 million in refunds in 2010 and 2011 alone, and that at least half the claimed refunds in those years were fraudulent.

Lanika Brown & Lashan Brown

On May 15, 2018, Lashan Brown was sentenced to three years, ten months in federal prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution of $120,671 to the IRS and Lanika Brown was sentenced to two years in federal prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution of $71,500 to the IRS for preparing and filing false tax returns with the IRS. Starting in 2010, Lashan Brown and Lanika Brown were return preparers at Brown Tax Service located in Tuscaloosa, AL. The Brown’s conspired together to prepare at least twenty fraudulent tax returns claiming false education credits for the tax years 2012 and 2013 for a total of $65,500 claimed in fraudulent refunds.

Go to https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-concludes-dirty-dozen-list-of-tax-scams-for-2019-agency-encourages-taxpayers-to-remain-vigilant-year-round for more information on the Dirty Dozen for the 2019 filing season.

For in person interview requests or questions, please contact the Atlanta Field Office IRS-Criminal Investigation Public Information Officer at Joseph.Ziegler@ci.irs.gov.

For further information from the United States Attorney’s Office, please contact the U.S. Attorney’s Office Public Information Officer at stacy.crane@usdoj.gov.