3 Texas Tax Preparers Plead Guilty to Tax Crimes

AUSTIN, Texas – A Texas return preparer pleaded guilty today to conspiring with his employees to defraud the United States by filing false federal tax returns on behalf of clients. This plea follows recent guilty pleas of two other Texas return preparers who both admitted to filing false tax returns on behalf of clients as part of the same scheme.

The following is according to court documents and statements made in court: From approximately January 2019 to October 2022, Mathews Chacko conspired with others to file returns for clients that contained false business expenses. These false expenses artificially reduced the taxes that Chacko’s clients owed to the IRS, which enabled them to receive refunds to which they were not entitled. At times, Chacko and his co-conspirators included false business expenses on client returns without their clients’ knowledge, then sometimes provided false explanations to clients justifying the false items. At other times, Chacko and his co-conspirators informed clients by email that they were submitting false information to the IRS. Chacko admitted to causing a tax loss to the United States exceeding $3.5 million but less than $9.5 million.

Chacko admitted to the conspiracy shortly after two of his co-conspirators also pleaded guilty to committing federal tax crimes. Over the same period, from approximately January 2019 to October 2022, Anish Pillai and Mou Kundu both prepared federal tax returns for clients that included materially false items, which resulted in clients receiving refunds larger than they were entitled to receive. Pillai admitted that he caused approximately $1.5 million to $3.5 million in losses to the United States. Kundu admitted that she caused between $250,000 and $550,000 in losses to the United States.

All three individuals will be sentenced at a later date. Chacko faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison for conspiracy to defraud the IRS. Pillai and Kundu both face maximum penalties of three years in prison for helping clients file false tax returns. A federal district court judge will determine any sentences after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

IRS Criminal Investigation is investigating the cases.

Trial Attorneys Marissa R. Brodney and Michael L. Jones of the Criminal Division’s Tax Section are prosecuting the cases.

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