Port St. Lucie Resident Sentenced to 30 Months in Prison for Running Fraudulent Tax Preparation Business

A Port St. Lucie resident was sentenced to 30 months in prison, to be followed by one year of supervised release, after pleading guilty to assisting in the preparation of false tax returns and filing false tax returns, in violation of Title 26, United States Code, Sections 7206(2) and (1).

Benjamin G. Greenberg, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Kelly R. Jackson, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), made the announcement.

Dianne Mowatt, 39, of Port St. Lucie, was charged in a fifty-two count indictment with running a fraudulent tax preparation business in order to file fraudulent tax returns on behalf of her clients and for filing false individual returns on her own behalf. She had pleaded guilty to five of the counts on March 6, 2017.

According to the indictment and factual proffer in support of the guilty plea, from tax years 2011 through 2014, Mowatt owned, operated, or otherwise provided services to Mowatt Financial Services and Proven Tax Services, both being tax return preparation businesses located in Port Saint Lucie and Miami, Florida. Mowatt prepared and submitted individual tax returns (Forms 1040), with accompanying schedules, to the IRS on behalf of taxpayers claiming false deductions and credits for tax years 2011 through 2014. Mowatt also filed false individual returns for herself for the tax years 2010 and 2011 by falsely claiming five different people as her dependents.

Mr. Greenberg commended the investigative efforts of IRS-CI. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Marton Gyires.

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 or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.