HOUSTON – A former Houston area tax preparer has been sentenced to federal prison following his conviction of fraudulently filing tax returns from 2014 to 2017, announced U.S. Attorney Jennifer B. Lowery.
David Wright pleaded guilty on June 3.
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On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge David Hittner sentenced Wright to 36 months in federal prison to be immediately followed by one year of supervised release. Wright was also ordered to pay $178,688 in restitution to the IRS.
At the hearing, the court heard an additional argument regarding how Wright profited from several years of fraudulently filing tax returns.
In handing down the sentence, the court said they noted the nature of the offense, the fact that Wright employed others to participate in the fraudulent activity and that these fraudulent filings were done without the knowledge of the taxpayer clients.
The investigation revealed Wright and his employees prepared and submitted 43 fraudulent tax returns for 16 clients, and they allegedly consistently used false Schedule C Business Income or Loss deductions to inflate tax refunds for clients.
They included fake expenses such as advertising, vehicle/transportation, legal/professional services, office/business property costs, maintenance, supplies, travel and utilities. This caused hundreds of thousands of dollars of tax loss to the IRS, according to court documents.
Wright was taken into custody and will be transferred to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.
IRS-Criminal Investigation conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Zahra Jivani Fenelon prosecuted the case.