Five Miami-Dade Return Preparers Charged with Filing False Tax Returns with the IRS

Five Miami-Dade return preparers were charged with filing false tax returns with the IRS, in an indictment unsealed today.

Benjamin G. Greenberg, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Michael J. De Palma, Acting Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), made the announcement. 

 Jamal Dyer, Jonathan Charles Edwards, Daniel Alvaro Murias, Jorge Alfonso Osorio Rodriguez, and Tramaine Das Sealy, were charged by indictment in the Southern District of Florida with one count of conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 371, and five counts of preparing false tax returns, in violation of Title 26, United States Code, Section 7206(2).

According to publicly filed court documents, the defendants allegedly prepared tax returns at The Tax Firm Miami, a business with multiple addresses in Miami-Dade County. The defendants and their co-conspirators unlawfully enriched themselves by charging clients tax preparation fees to prepare materially false tax returns. The defendants knowingly submitted false statements and claims on their clients' tax returns, including false claims to the Education Credit, the American Opportunity Credit, the Residential Energy Credit, and false Schedules C, resulting in a greater tax refund being paid from the IRS to their clients or a lesser tax liability owed by their clients to the IRS. The defendants collected fees from clients for each tax return prepared and deposited the fees into individual bank accounts that they each controlled. According to allegations made in court, the defendants caused approximately $15 million in tax loss over the three charged years.

If convicted of the charged offenses, the defendants are facing up to 5 years in prison for the conspiracy and up to 3 years in prison for each count related to the filing false tax returns.

An indictment is merely an allegation and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Mr. Greenberg commended the investigative efforts of IRS-CI. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel J. Marcet.

Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov