Two Tax Preparers Sentenced to Federal Prison

MIAMI – On July 1, two tax preparers were sentenced to federal prison for their involvement in a scheme to file false tax returns.

Napoleon Tabot, 60, of Chandler, Ariz., was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison and co-defendant Lovet Ayuk-Ako, 40, of Silver Spring, Md., was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Roy K. Altman following their convictions for conspiracy to commit tax fraud.  Upon release from custody, Tabot and Ayuk-Ako must serve three years of supervised release and pay $397,818.00 in restitution to the U.S. government.

As outlined in court documents, Tabot recruited individual tax return clients (co-workers at an employer located in Hollywood, Fla.) for Ayuk-Ako’s tax preparation business, Money Back Tax, LLC, located in Maryland. The Money Back Tax business had clients in Florida, Maryland, and Washington, DC.  After Tabot had collected personal identifying information (PII) and tax information from his client victims, he would provide it to co-conspirators Ayuk-Ako and Arnold Zio for tax return preparation at Money Back Tax.  Thereafter, Ayuk-Ako and Zio filed and caused to be filed false tax returns which claimed inflated refunds and directed all or part of the refunds to be deposited into bank accounts under their control, without the taxpayer’s knowledge or consent.  As a result of the fraudulent scheme, the United States suffered a tax loss in excess of $500,000.

Co-conspirator Zio remains a fugitive. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe for the Southern District of Florida and Special Agent in Charge Matthew D. Line of the IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), Miami Field Office, announced the sentences imposed.

IRS-CI Miami investigated the case and Assistant U.S. Attorney Marc Anton prosecuted it.

Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov under case number 23-cr-60077.

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