Alabama Return Preparer Sentenced to 18 Months for Preparing False Income Tax Returns

WASHINGTON - Chiquita Q. Broadnax, a resident of Montgomery County, Ala., was sentenced today to 18 months in prison by Judge Mark Fuller of the Middle District of Alabama for her involvement in a fraudulent tax return perpetration scheme, the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced.

According to the court documents, Broadnax was employed by James E. Moss as a tax return preparer at a tax return preparation business, known as Flash Tax, from December 2004 through January 2007. During her employment at Flash Tax, Broadnax prepared and filed at least 900 tax returns, the majority of which contained false information designed to illegally obtain higher refunds to which her clients were not entitled. Moss trained Broadnax to prepare false tax returns in order to obtain higher tax refunds for Flash Tax clients by inflating or deflating specific numbers and/or by adding totally fictitious numbers to the return. Moss was convicted early this month by an Alabama jury for orchestrating this fraudulent tax return preparation scheme.

John A. DiCicco, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Tax Division commended the IRS special agents who investigated this case and Tax Division Trial Attorneys Charles M. Edgar Jr., Michelle Petersen and Thomas Krepp who prosecuted the case.

Additional information about the Justice Department’s Tax Division and its enforcement efforts is available at www.usdoj.gov/tax .