OCALA, Fla. (WFLA) — A Florida tax preparer will serve federal jail time for defrauding each his purchasers and the IRS, the Florida Division of Judgement introduced Monday.
U.S. District Decide Thomas Barber sentenced Steven Cabrera, of Ocala, to a few years in jail on expenses of making ready false tax paperwork, submitting false tax paperwork, and willfully failing to file tax returns. Cabrera pleaded responsible in August.
Court docket paperwork present Cabrera, who labored as a tax preparer from 2017 to 2019, added unauthorized and fraudulent deductions and credit to his shopper’s tax returns with out their data and embezzled the extra returns for his use.
Cabrera additionally defrauded purchasers instantly by telling them to make out checks to the “IRS” and pledging he would ship the funds to the IRS himself, paperwork say. As an alternative, he deposited these checks into an account he owned for a fictitious enterprise known as “Worldwide Resort Companies.”
The DOJ mentioned Cabrera contributed to losses of almost $1 million.
“It’s definitely a daring transfer to invoke the title of the ‘IRS’ when trying to defraud not solely the federal government however people who find themselves placing their belief in you,” mentioned Ron Loecker, Particular Agent in Cost of IRS-Felony Investigation’s Tampa Subject Workplace. “The actual ‘IRS’ is at all times going to point out up, examine, and put a cease to a lot of these scams.
“In case your return preparer displays any of the behaviors proven on this case, please go to IRS.gov and click on on the ‘Get your tax document’ button. From there, you’ll be able to confirm the accuracy of the knowledge in your tax document and, if vital, report any fraudulent or inaccurate data.”
