Bruce Gregory Harrison III, Charged With Failing to Pay more than $15 Million in Payroll Taxes for Temporary Staffing Companies

Source- http://www.justice.gov/tax/txdv101368.htm

WASHINGTON – A federal grand jury in Greensboro, N.C., Monday returned a 63-count indictment against businessman Bruce Gregory Harrison III, the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced today.

According to the indictment, Harrison, a resident of Greensboro, did business under various corporate names including U.S.A. Staffing. He owned or controlled temporary staffing companies operating in at least nine states. Harrison’s staffing companies were headquartered in Guilford County, N.C., and contracted with client businesses to provide temporary workers. Harrison’s companies promised to assume full responsibility for the payment of wages and the withholding and transmitting of taxes to the IRS for those employees. Instead, according to the indictment, Harrison failed to account for and pay over in excess of $15 million in federal payroll taxes for the employees of those companies. 

Harrison is also alleged to have corruptly endeavored to obstruct the IRS by means of false statements to IRS revenue officers. Additionally, he allegedly used company funds to purchase personal residences, to buy a yacht and to finance movies. Harrison is also charged with failing to timely file his own income tax returns for 2004, 2005 and 2006.

An indictment merely alleges that a crime has been committed, and a defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Harrison was arrested on Nov. 10, 2010, by special agents of IRS Criminal Investigation in connection to an earlier criminal complaint.


************************************************************************
Report IRS Tax Fraud by Calling 1-888-482-6825 or by visiting
www.irsrewards.com
 

Justice Department ask Federal Court to Shut Down Colorado Tax Retur Preparer George Thomas Gaines

Source- http://www.justice.gov/tax/txdv101356.htm

WASHINGTON - The United States has filed a complaint in federal court in Colorado against George Thomas Gaines of Aurora, Colo, the Justice Department announced today. The government’s lawsuit seeks to bar Gaines and his tax preparation companies from preparing federal tax returns for others.

According to the government’s complaint in the case, Gaines, through his companies, G&G Tax Service and American Benefits, prepares federal income tax returns for customers that claim losses for non-existent businesses and inflated or fabricated deductions in order to unlawfully understate tax liabilities or claim the earned income tax credit.

According to the complaint, the Internal Revenue Service has identified 210 returns prepared by Gaines between 2004 and 2007 that contain understatements of customers’ tax liabilities, out of 218 returns audited. The government alleges that these understatements have resulted in a tax harm of more than $900,000, and the total lost revenue could be as much as nearly $4 million.

This civil injunction action is part of the Justice Department’s nationwide crackdown on tax scams, including the preparation of fraudulent federal tax returns. Since 2001, the Justice Department has obtained hundreds of injunctions to stop the promotion of tax fraud schemes and the preparation of fraudulent returns.


************************************************************************
Report IRS Tax Fraud by Calling 1-888-482-6825 or by visiting
www.irsrewards.com
 

Federal Court Permanently Bars Robert Knupp from Preparing Federal Tax Returns for Others

Source- http://www.justice.gov/tax/txdv101336.htm

WASHINGTON - A federal court has permanently barred Robert Knupp of Marietta, Ga., from preparing federal income tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today. The civil injunction order, signed by Chief Judge Julie E. Carnes of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, found that Knupp promotes a tax defier scheme that claims large fraudulent tax refunds for customers.

The court found that Knupp repeatedly prepared federal income tax returns claiming "huge and fraudulent" refunds for customers, "in amounts sometimes in the millions of dollars," based on a tax fraud scheme known as the "redemption" or "Form 1099-OID" scheme. It further found that Knupp prepared and filed 58 income tax returns for customers in 2009 claiming more than $11 million in fraudulent refunds. The lawsuit against Knupp was one of seven other lawsuits filed across the country in October 2009, all of which sought permanent injunctions against tax preparers who allegedly promote the redemption scheme.

The Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) list of the Dirty Dozen tax scams for 2010 includes schemes involving the filing of false or misleading forms such as false OID forms as used in this case.


************************************************************************
Report IRS Tax Fraud by Calling 1-888-482-6825 or by visiting
www.irsrewards.com
 

Bradley C. Brennecke and Bruce A. Mrusek, Sentenced to Jail for Tax Evasion and Conspiracy

Source- http://www.justice.gov/tax/txdv101337.htm

WASHINGTON - Bradley C. Brennecke, a resident of Pleasant Plain, Ohio, and Bruce A. Mrusek, a resident of Maineville, Ohio, were each sentenced to 12 months in jail following their January 2010 guilty pleas to conspiracy and tax evasion charges, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced today. Cincinnati federal District Court judge Michael R. Barrett imposed the sentences.

Mrusek and Brennecke, who are both dentists, were indicted in July 2009 and charged with tax evasion, conspiracy to defraud the IRS and passing fictitious instruments. Mrusek and Brennecke were scheduled to begin trial on January 11, 2010. However, both defendants failed to appear in court. Both defendants were subsequently arrested. Facing trial on multiple counts, each defendant elected to plead guilty to conspiracy and tax evasion the following day.

According to court documents and testimony, Brennecke, who operated Goshen Family Dentistry Ltd. in Goshen, Ohio, failed to pay taxes for 1998, 2002, 2003 and 2004. Additionally, the indictment alleges that Brennecke transferred title of his house to his wife to conceal it from the IRS, sent the government bogus documents that purported to pay his tax liabilities and filed false tax returns.

According to court documents and testimony, Mrusek, who owned and operated Wilmington Dental Management Services in Wilmington, Ohio, evaded his 2002, 2003 and 2004 taxes by transferring his assets to his wife's name, sending bogus documents to the IRS that purported to pay his tax liabilities, using a trust to pay personal expenses and filing false personal tax returns. Additionally, the indictment alleges that Mrusek filed false tax returns for Wilmington Dental Management Services by reporting deductions that the business did not incur.

According to court documents and testimony, Brennecke and Mrusek conspired to defraud the IRS beginning around the time that the IRS began civil audits of each of them. Brennecke and Mrusek assisted each other in the mailing of various fraudulent documents to the IRS and U.S. Treasury Department. Brennecke assisted Mrusek in the transfer of assets out of Mrusek's name. The judge found that the total attempted tax harm associated with each defendants' conduct was over $1 million.

According to the indictment, Brennecke and Mrusek submitted fictitious obligations labeled "Secured Promissory Notes" to the U.S. Department of the Treasury as purported payment of their tax debts. Each of these documents purported to be in the amount of $4.8 billion.

Each was also sentenced to three years supervised release following their release from prison.


************************************************************************
Report IRS Tax Fraud by Calling 1-888-482-6825 or by visiting
www.irsrewards.com
 

California UBS Client Bernard Goldstein Indicted for Hiding Assets in Secret Swiss Bank Accounts

Source- http://www.justice.gov/tax/txdv101327.htm

WASHINGTON - Bernard Goldstein of Carlsbad, Calif., was indicted by a federal grand jury for conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), filing false tax returns and failing to file Reports of Foreign Bank or Financial Accounts (FBARs), the Justice Department and IRS announced today. All the charges are related to Goldstein's hiding hundreds of thousands of dollars of assets in several Swiss bank accounts held at UBS AG. The indictment was returned Nov. 16, 2010, and unsealed today. Goldstein was not present in court today and, according to the indictment, fled the United States shortly after UBS entered into a Deferred Prosecution Agreement with the United States government.

According to the indictment filed in San Diego federal court, Goldstein, a Canadian citizen and lawful permanent resident of the U.S., kept assets in bank accounts with UBS from at least 1992 through at least October 2008. In 1992 he opened a UBS bank account in his own name that held assets totaling more than $2 million at the end of 2000. In 2000 Goldstein, with the assistance of UBS and other co-conspirators, opened another UBS account under the name of a sham Panamanian corporation named Kasler Management Corp. Goldstein then transferred funds from the UBS account in his own name to the UBS account held in the name of Kasler. Goldstein also maintained an account at UBS Cayman Islands Ltd. until 2002, when he transferred assets from the Cayman Islands account to the Kasler account. By the end of 2003, Goldstein's UBS accounts held assets totaling more than $2.5 million, almost all of which were in the Kasler account. Further, in 2004, Goldstein transferred funds to an account at another large global Swiss bank headquartered in Zurich, also held in the name of Kasler.

Goldstein, the owner and operator of MG Export-Import Inc., a California-based company that exported oil pipeline products to Russia, concealed from his tax return preparer the existence of these numerous offshore accounts. Further, he failed to report his ownership of these accounts and failed to report any income earned in these accounts on his tax returns. He also failed to file FBARs relating to the accounts.

A U.S. taxpayer who has an interest in, or signature or other authority over, a financial account in a foreign country with assets in excess of $10,000 is required to disclose the existence of the account on Schedule B, Part III of his or her individual income tax return. A U.S. taxpayer must also disclose the existence of the account by filing an FBAR with the U.S. Treasury.

To further conceal his ownership of the Kasler account, Goldstein's co-conspirators signed IRS forms and UBS's equivalent forms falsely stating that his sham corporation was the owner of his account, when in reality, Goldstein was the owner. Goldstein and his co-conspirators also withdrew cash and transferred assets from and between Goldstein's UBS accounts in order to conceal these assets from the IRS, including the withdrawal of cash from one account after UBS disclosed that it was under criminal investigation by the U.S. government.

Goldstein is charged with one count of conspiring to defraud the IRS, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison; five counts of filing false federal income tax returns, each of which carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison; and three counts of willful failure to file an FBAR, each of which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

An indictment merely alleges that a crime has been committed, and a defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

"The IRS and Justice Department continue to work cooperatively to combat international tax evasion," said IRS Deputy Commissioner Steven T. Miller. "Individuals who hide income and assets offshore, and those banks and advisors who help them cheat, will find themselves increasingly at risk."

In February 2009, UBS entered into a deferred prosecution agreement under which the bank admitted to helping U.S. taxpayers hide accounts from the IRS. As part of their agreement, UBS provided the U.S. government with the identities of, and account information for, certain U.S. customers of UBS's cross-border business, including Goldstein.


************************************************************************
Report IRS Tax Fraud by Calling 1-888-482-6825 or by visiting
www.irsrewards.com