It’s tax season! In that spirit, here is a case involving two sisters that filed thousands of fraudulent returns:
According to a federal indictment, sisters Petra Gomez and Jakeline Lumucso submitted more than 16,000 false tax returns using the personal information of previous clients from 2012 to 2016.
…
To conceal the fraud, investigators say the women created five different e-file tax preparation companies across Orange and Seminole Counties including “Universal Tax LLC,” “Universal Financial Inc” and “Resurrection Tax”. In some cases, authorities say they opened the companies in the names of other people.
As part of their business, court documents show the sisters charged fees for filing Individual Identification Numbers applications, which are issued by the IRS to undocumented people who worked in the U.S.
…
In Aug. 2021, Gomez was sentenced to eight years in federal prison for conspiracy to defraud the government and tax evasion. Her co-conspirator, Lumucso, was sentenced to four years in prison.
The court also ordered the sisters to pay $24,940,495 in restitution to the IRS. The luxury homes have since been sold.
https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2022/01/11/25m-fraud-scheme-involving-orlando-sisters-featured-in-irs-most-shocking-cases-of-2021/
Further reading:
https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdfl/pr/orlando-sisters-sentenced-25-million-tax-fraud-scheme
Leave a Reply