New Hartford-Based Professional Tax Preparer Pleads Guilty to Failing to File his Tax Returns

SYRACUSE, NEW YORK – James Becker, age 53, of New Hartford, New York, pled guilty yesterday to four counts of failing to file his personal federal income tax returns for tax years 2012-2015, announced United States Attorney Grant C. Jaquith and James D. Robnett, Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI). 

As part of the plea, Becker admitted that he was required to file tax returns for 2012-2015 based on his gross income in those years and that he willfully failed to do so, despite being a professional tax preparer who filed hundreds of tax returns for other people. 

Becker will be sentenced by United States Magistrate Judge Thérèse Wiley Dancks on September 16, 2019 and faces up to one year in prison and up to a $100,000 fine on each of the four counts to which he pled guilty.  A defendant’s sentence is imposed by a judge based on the particular statute the defendant is charged with violating, the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, and other factors. 

This case was investigated by IRS-Criminal Investigation and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael D. Gadarian.