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Press Release

Okeechobee Man Pleads Guilty to Preparing False Tax Returns

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of Florida

Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Kelly R. Jackson, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), announce that Wyman Pittman, 47, of Okeechobee, Florida, pled guilty today to one count of aiding in the preparation and presentation of false tax returns, in violation of Title 26, United States Code, Section 7206(2). Sentencing is scheduled for March 6, 2015, at 9:30 a.m., before U.S. District Judge Robin L. Rosenberg in Ft. Pierce. At sentencing, Pittman faces up to three years in prison.

According to court documents, Pittman was a paid tax preparer who, together with his former partner Ventrell Bouie, of Fort Pierce, Florida, had prepared individual income tax returns for customers from 2008 through 2012. Pittman assisted in the preparation of multiple, fraudulent tax returns by supplying false income and deduction figures, failing to review them in detail with the taxpayers, and then electronically filing them for the taxpayers.

Specifically, Pittman filed a Form 1040 income tax return for a taxpayer for the 2008 tax filing year. That Form 1040 tax return stated false itemized deductions for, among other things, medical expenses and work expenses. As a result, the taxpayer received an inflated and unmerited tax refund payment. Pittman knew that the taxpayer had not claimed, or provided to Pittman, the information regarding those deductions for inclusion in the tax return.

Bouie had been separately charged and convicted for identical offenses. On December 17, 2013, U.S. District Judge Jose E. Martinez sentenced Bouie to 24 months in prison for his offense.

Mr. Ferrer commended the investigative efforts of IRS-CI. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Theodore M. Cooperstein.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.

Updated March 18, 2015