ENJOINED TAX-SCAM PROMOTER SENT TO JAIL

Dallas Man Found in Contempt of Court for Failing to Turn Over Customer List

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Justice Department announced today that a federal judge in Dallas today has ordered the imprisonment of a Texas promoter of an allegedly fraudulent tax scheme until he complies with an order, entered on January 26, 2004, that requires him to give the Justice Department a list of the names, addresses and social security numbers of all customers who purchased the scheme. The promoter, Daniel Fisher, of Dallas, must also notify his customers in writing of the earlier court order.

The January order, a permanent injunction, required Fisher and his wife, Brenda Meyers-Fisher, to stop promoting the allegedly fraudulent scheme, and barred Daniel Fisher from representing customers before the IRS. Today’s order is based on a court finding that Fisher is in civil contempt of court. Judge A. Joe Fish of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas entered both court orders. Evidence provided by the Justice Department in seeking the incarceration order showed that Fisher has not complied with the January order.

"The Justice Department will seek strong sanctions against those who ignore court injunctions," said Eileen J. O’Connor, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Tax Division. “People who buy tax scams should know that as we proceed against promoters, we will obtain their customers’ identities. Rooting out fraudulent tax schemes is a high priority for the Justice Department."

According to papers filed in the case to obtain the injunction, Fisher and Meyers-Fisher allegedly illegally advised their customers to conceal income and assets from the IRS in sham partnerships, to claim improper tax deductions, and to stop paying federal employment taxes. The suits also allege that the defendants and their associates prepared hundreds of fraudulent tax returns and have been responsible for more than $5 million in tax evasion.

More information about this case is available at http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/txdv04053.htm. The Justice Department has sought and obtained injunctions against a number of tax-scam promoters. Information on some of these cases is available at: http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/taxpress2004.htm, and http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/taxpress2003.htm. More information about the Justice Department’s Tax Division can be found at http://www.usdoj.gov/tax.

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