Alabama Return Preparers Sentenced to Jail for Tax Conspiracy

James E. Moss and Avada L. Jenkins were both sentenced yesterday to 160 months and 41 months in prison respectively for their involvement in a fraudulent tax return perpetration scheme, the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced. U.S. District Judge Mark E. Fuller of the Middle District of Alabama also ordered Moss and Jenkins to pay over $120,000 in restitution, jointly and severally, to the IRS.

On Nov. 2, 2011, a jury found both Moss and Jenkins guilty of conspiracy and aiding and assisting the preparation of false tax returns relating to a tax preparation business owned by Moss named “Flash Tax” in Montgomery, Ala. The evidence at trial proved that both Moss and Jenkins, an employee of Flash Tax, prepared false tax returns for customers that fraudulently inflated the amount of refunds due to the customers. During the sentencing, Judge Fuller concluded the overall intended tax loss associated with the scheme was in excess of $7 million dollars.

Three other employees of Flash Tax had been sentenced previously for their roles in preparing false income tax returns. Chiquita Broadnax and Lutoyua Thompson were each sentenced to 18 months in prison, and Melinda Lambert was sentenced to 6 months in prison and 6 months home confinement.

Kathryn Keneally, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Tax Division, thanked special agents of IRS - Criminal Investigation, who investigated the case, and Tax Division Trial Attorneys Charles M. Edgar, Jr., Thomas J. Krepp and Michelle M. Petersen, who prosecuted the case.

Additional information about the Tax Division and its enforcement efforts may be found at www.usdoj.gov/tax .