Federal Court Permanently Bars South Florida Man from Preparing Tax Returns for Others

WASHINGTON – A federal court has permanently barred Sony Ducasse of Greenacres, Fla., from preparing federal income tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today. The injunction order, to which Ducasse consented, was entered by Judge James Cohn of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in West Palm Beach.

The government complaint in the case alleges that Ducasse prepares federal income tax returns for his customers containing false claims for the earned income tax credit or bogus tax deductions. According to the complaint, Ducasse has prepared at least 3,200 returns since 2007 and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has imposed over $30,000 in penalties against him for tax-preparer misconduct. The complaint states that the IRS estimates that the lost revenue from the returns Ducasse prepared in the 2007 through 2010 tax filing seasons could exceed $6 million.

In the past ten years the Justice Department’s Tax Division has obtained hundreds of injunctions to stop the promotion of tax-fraud schemes and the preparation of fraudulent returns. Information about these cases is available on the Justice Department website.