William Joseph, 33, of Miami Former NFL Star Sentenced on Identity Theft Tax Refund Fraud Scheme

Source- http://www.fbi.gov/miami/press-releases/2012/former-nfl-star-sentenced-on-identity-theft-tax-refund-fraud-scheme

Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida; Michael A. Steinbach, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); and José A. Gonzalez, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), announced that William Joseph, 33, of Miami, was sentenced today to two years in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, for his participation in an identity theft tax refund fraud scheme. Joseph pled guilty on August 31, 2012, to one count of theft of government money and one count of aggravated identity theft.

According to court documents, the defendant and seven others were charged in an FBI sting operation. From February 2012 to April 2012, the FBI operated a financial services store (the store) in North Miami that accepted fraudulently obtained tax refund checks from individuals looking to cash those checks.

According to court documents, in March and April 2012, the defendant cashed or assisted in the cashing of 13 fraudulently obtained income tax refund checks (totaling approximately $70,000) at the store for around 60 percent of face value. The defendant provided fake identification documents to the undercover agent at the store matching the names of the victims on the checks. The defendant also forged the signatures of the victims on the back of some of the checks.

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Betty Lessard, 74, Wichita, Kansas, Former Co-Owner of Home Health Care Business Sentenced for Filing False Tax Returns

Source- http://www.fbi.gov/kansascity/press-releases/2012/former-co-owner-of-home-health-care-business-sentenced-for-filing-false-tax-returns

WICHITA, KS—The former co-owner of a Wichita home health care company who pleaded guilty to filing false tax returns has been sentenced to six months in-home detention, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said today.

Betty Lessard, 74, Wichita, Kansas, will serve a year on supervised release including six months in-home detention. She also was ordered to pay $692,515 in restitution. In addition, she is banned from doing business with Medicare.

Earlier this year, Lessard’s husband, Gerard Lessard, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six months community confinement, followed by six months in-home detention with electronic monitoring, and $692,615 restitution. He also was banned from doing business with Medicare.

The Lessards are the former owners of ProActive Health Care in Wichita. They each pleaded guilty to one count of filing a false tax return. In their pleas, they admitted that in October 2005 they filed a joint federal tax return for the year 2004 in which they failed to report additional income totaling $858,789.

According to court documents, Proactive was one of the largest home health agencies in Kansas and received more money from Kansas Medicaid in 2004, 2005, and 2006 than any of its competitors. The Lessards previously agreed to settle a False Claims Act and civil forfeiture action that began in 2011 when a federal agent filed an affidavit alleging Proactive submitted false and fraudulent claims to Medicaid totaling more than $38 million.

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Curtis L. Morris Sentenced to 10 Years in Prision for Fraud and Tax Conspiracy

Source- http://www.justice.gov/tax/2012/txdv121393.htm

WASHINGTON – Curtis L. Morris, age 43, of Elizabeth, Colo., was sentenced Monday in Denver to 120 months in prison followed by 3 years of supervised release by U.S. District Court Judge Robert E. Blackburn, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced. Judge Blackburn also ordered Morris to pay $1,916,831 in restitution to the IRS.

Morris was found guilty on April 30, 2012, after a three week jury trial, of three counts of mail fraud, seventeen counts of filing false claims against the United States, and one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States. According to the testimony at trial, Armstrong, Morris and others conspired to file false federal income tax returns claiming large tax refunds based upon fictitious federal income tax withholdings taken from bogus Forms 1099-OID for themselves and others. Codefendant Richard Kellogg Armstrong, age 77, of Prescott, Ariz., was sentenced on Aug. 10, 2012, to 9 years in prison followed by 3 years of supervised release.

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Douglas Kuester was Sentenced to Prision for Stolen Identity Refund Fraud

Source- http://www.justice.gov/tax/2012/txdv121387.htm

WASHINGTON – Douglas Kuester, 43, a tax preparer from Silver City, N.M., was sentenced today to 48 months in prison for filing false claims and aggravated identity theft, the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced today. Kuester was also ordered to pay $911,000 in restitution and will be on supervised release for three years after completing his prison sentence.

Kuester had pleaded guilty to the charges in May. He was originally indicted by a federal grand jury on Jan. 18, 2012, and has been in custody since his arrest on January 24.

According to court documents, Kuester used stolen identities to file false tax returns which fraudulently claimed refunds. He would direct the fraudulently obtained refunds to various bank accounts and prepaid debit cards, retaining portions of the proceeds for himself. Kuester also admitted to using an anonymizer to help conceal his filing of the false returns.

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Federal Court Permanently Bars Tammy Daniels From Promoting Alleged Tax Fraud Scheme

Source- http://www.justice.gov/tax/2012/txdv121377.htm

WASHINGTON – A federal court has permanently barred a Michigan lawyer, Tammy Daniels of Farmington Hills, from promoting an alleged tax fraud scheme, the Justice Department announced today. The civil injunction order, to which Daniels consented without admitting the allegations against her, was signed by Judge Paul D. Borman of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. In August the court enjoined Daniels’s co-defendants, Damian and Holly Jackson, from preparing federal tax returns for others and promoting the scheme.

The government complaint in the civil injunction lawsuit alleged that the Jacksons and their business, Diamond & Associates Enterprises LLC, operated Diamond Tax Services and promoted a scheme involving the preparation of fraudulent federal income tax returns for customers seeking large tax refunds based on a frivolous tax-defier theory called “redemption” or “commercial redemption.” The suit alleged that tax returns prepared for at least 182 customers under the auspices of Diamond Tax Services sought over $29 million in fraudulent refunds by falsely reporting large amounts of tax withheld on bogus Internal Revenue Service (IRS) 1099 Forms.

While most such frivolous refund claims are intercepted by the IRS before refunds are issued, the complaint alleged that the defendants’ scheme caused the IRS to issue at least $1.6 million in erroneous refunds to defendants’ customers. The suit further alleged that tax returns that Damian and Holly Jackson prepared requested the IRS to issue the refunds to their customers “C/O Attorney Tammy Daniels,” that Daniels negotiated the refund check if one was issued, and that the Jacksons and Daniels took a 10 percent cut of any refund issued by the IRS.

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Mohammad Jafar Nikbakht, aka Freydoon Nikbakht, was Sentenced to Prison for Evading his Individual Income Taxes

Source- http://www.justice.gov/tax/2012/txdv121383.htm

WASHINGTON – Mohammad Jafar Nikbakht, aka Freydoon Nikbakht, was sentenced Friday to 15 months in prison for evading his individual income taxes, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced. According to the indictment and other documents filed with the court, Nikbakht ran a series of lucrative auto dealerships in the greater San Diego area and significantly under-reported income earned through these businesses. John A. Houston, U.S. District Court Judge for the Southern District of California, who presided over the sentencing hearing, found that Nikbakht caused over $200,000 in tax loss. Judge Houston ordered Nikbakht to make restitution payments to the IRS for $124,454 of this amount.

Nikbakht had pleaded guilty to tax evasion on March 30, 2011. At his plea hearing, he admitted that during 2007 he earned income through auto dealership operations, including through a dealership called Southern California Car Exchange. Nikbakht further admitted that he willfully failed to file his personal tax return and pay his taxes for 2007, and that he engaged in various acts to conceal income from the IRS. For example, Nikbakht admitted that he operated under another dealer’s license and that he instructed the other dealer to write his income payment checks to the order of a third-party or to “cash”.

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Federal Court Shuts Down South Florida Tax Preparer Jayvon Copeland, from Preparing Federal Tax Returns

Source- http://www.justice.gov/tax/2012/txdv121372.htm

WASHINGTON – A federal court in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., has permanently barred a Broward County man from preparing federal tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today. Jayvon Copeland, who last month pleaded guilty in a criminal case to conspiracy to defraud the United States, consented to the injunction order without admitting the allegations in the civil complaint filed against him last April.

According to the civil complaint, filed in the U.S. District for the Southern District of Florida, Copeland used stolen identities to prepare and file fraudulent tax returns claiming tax refunds that Copeland kept for himself. A September 2012 report by the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said that Florida has the highest rate of stolen identity tax refund fraud in the United States.

The complaint also alleged that Copeland fraudulently boosted tax refunds for his return-preparation customers by making false claims for the first-time homebuyer credit, reporting phony business expenses, claiming false education expenses, and fabricating income to inflate customers’ earned-income tax credits.

The court’s injunction order also shuts down two tax-return preparation businesses, Taxologist Inc. and Taxes in Miami Gardens LLC.

The court previously barred two of Copeland’s co-defendants in the civil injunction suit, Kisha Andrews and Brandon Johnson, from preparing federal tax returns. The injunction suit is still pending against the other two co-defendants, Aundrea Luc and James Daniels.

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Kenneth Scott Alcock was Sentenced to Prison for Tax Evasion and Conspiracy to Defraud The United States

Source- http://www.justice.gov/tax/2012/txdv121371.htm

WASHINGTON – A federal judge in Boston sentenced Kenneth Scott Alcock today to 12 months and a day in prison for tax evasion, and for conspiring to defraud the United States, the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced. United States District Judge F. Dennis Saylor also ordered Kenneth Scott Alcock to pay restitution in the amount of $201,000. Alcock pleaded guilty to the charges on Jan. 24, 2012, and provided substantial assistance to the government in prosecuting the case against the remaining defendants, which the Judge Saylor cited, among other factors, as basis for a reduced sentence.

Alcock testified at a trial of three defendants which resulted in guilty verdicts rendered by a federal jury on April 2, 2012. The jury convicted Charles Adams of Norwood, Mass., as well as Catherine Floyd and William Scott Dion, both of Sanbornville, N.H., for conspiracies to defraud the United States through the promotion and use of multiple tax fraud schemes. The jury convicted all three of conspiracy to defraud the IRS by promoting an “under the table” payroll scheme doing business as Contract America. Dion and Floyd were also convicted for conspiracy to defraud the IRS through the use of an “underground warehouse banking” scheme designed to conceal customer income and assets from the IRS.

According to court documents, Kenneth Scott Alcock was a subscriber to, and assisted his brother, Gary Alcock, in using the services of Dion, Floyd and Adams. According to the indictment and information presented in court, Gary Alcock owned and operated a trash hauling business called G&K Trucking, as well as a landscaping business at the same location in Shrewsbury, Mass., called Bark, Mulch, and Loam.

Between 2001 and 2004, Kenneth Scott Alcock conspired with his brother in helping him set up and implement the banking and nominee services of Dion and Floyd. The Alcocks set up a nominee company called “Alex Management” to divert and hide business receipts, to help Gary Alcock’s businesses fraudulently “disappear” on paper, and, thus, to evade IRS assessments and IRS collection activity. The Alcock brothers further conspired to use the services of Contract America, run by Adams, Dion and Floyd, in order to pay Gary Alcock’s employees “under the table” without withholding and paying over Social Security, Medicare and income taxes.

Kenneth Scott Alcock also pleaded guilty to three counts of tax evasion concerning his own individual taxes. According to the indictment and information presented in court, Alcock evaded his own taxes by using the nominee and warehouse banking services of Dion and Floyd.

Judge Saylor previously sentenced Dion to seven years in prison, Floyd to five years in prison and Adams to four years in prison for promoting these schemes. Judge Saylor previously sentenced Gary Alcock to 14 months in prison.

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Charles Sewell of Bristol Allegedly Filed More Than $67 Million in False Refund Claims

Source- http://www.justice.gov/tax/2012/txdv121344.htm

WASHINGTON – The United States has sued Charles Sewell of Bristol, Va., to bar him from promoting an alleged scheme involving fraudulent tax refund claims, the Justice Department announced today.

According to the government’s amended complaint, Sewell creates fraudulent types of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Forms 1099 for other taxpayers and files them with the IRS. The fraudulent types of Forms 1099 are allegedly designed to help Sewell’s customers request large tax refunds to which they are not entitled, based on false claims of income earned and federal tax withheld. The complaint alleges that Sewell’s scheme is based on the “commercial redemption” theory, in which individuals make refund claims based on the bogus theory that the federal government maintains secret accounts for U.S. citizens and that taxpayers can gain access to the accounts by issuing 1099-OID forms to the IRS. The lawsuit alleges that Sewell’s customers sought $67 million in bogus refunds as a result of Sewell’s conduct.

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John Allen Allegedly Promotes Several Tax-Fraud Schemes

Source- http://www.justice.gov/tax/2012/txdv121343.htm

WASHINGTON – The Justice Department announced today that it has asked a federal court in Columbus, Ohio, to permanently bar John Allen from promoting tax-fraud schemes and preparing federal tax returns. The civil injunction lawsuit alleges that Allen, who does business as Allen & Associates, promotes several schemes involving the preparation of fraudulent federal income tax returns based on the false premise that his customers do not receive “wages” as defined by law.

The complaint alleges that Allen has promoted at least three tax-fraud schemes, moving from scheme to scheme when the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) identifies the bogus nature of the tax returns that are filed as part of Allen’s arrangement. The complaint alleges that, as part of the promotion, Allen prepares his customers’ tax returns, but does not sign the returns as the preparer. According to the complaint, Allen prepares frivolous letters addressed to the Secretary of the Treasury and the commissioner of the IRS on behalf of customers, and also aided a customer in an attempt to file a frivolous lien against the United States by preparing a bogus lien document and directing his customer to file it. Allen allegedly solicits up-front fees of $250 from customers to prepare their returns and handle any correspondence with the IRS, and asks for a “donation” of 10% of any refund issued to his customers by the IRS.

The complaint further alleges that Allen falsely holds himself out as an attorney to his customers and to third parties, including the IRS, despite being enjoined from the unauthorized practice of law by the Supreme Court of Ohio.

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Andrew J. Watts was Sentenced to Prison for Using Stolen Identities to Obtain Tax Refund

Source- http://www.justice.gov/tax/2012/txdv121325.htm

WASHINGTON – Andrew J. Watts, a Barbados national, was sentenced in Chicago by U.S. District Judge Joan Gottschall to 114 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution of just under $1.7 million for devising and executing a stolen identity federal income tax refund fraud scheme, the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced today.

According to court documents, between 2007 and 2011, Watts filed false federal income tax returns in the names of deceased taxpayers seeking fraudulent refunds. Watts either signed the name of the deceased taxpayer to the tax return, or would falsely list himself as the deceased taxpayer’s representative. As part of the scheme, Watts filed over 470 false federal income tax returns, claiming fraudulent refunds in excess of $120 million, and the IRS issued refunds in excess of $10 million. Watts directed the IRS to either mail the refund checks to an address he controlled or to electronically deposit the refund into a bank account under his control.

“While all taxpayers are victims when criminals file false tax returns using stolen identities, those who falsely use the names of deceased individuals add to the grief and burdens of their families,” said Kathryn Keneally, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department's Tax Division. “We will prosecute and seek just punishment against those who seek to commit these crimes.”

“IRS-Criminal Investigation has made investigating refund fraud and identity theft a top priority and we will vigorously pursue those who undermine the integrity of the U.S. tax system,” said Richard Weber, Chief, IRS-Criminal Investigation. “Individuals who commit refund fraud and identity theft of this magnitude deserve to be punished to the fullest extent of the law.”

On July 10, 2012, Watts pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft.

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Jeffrey Charles was Convicted of Tax Crimes

Source- http://www.justice.gov/tax/2012/txdv121323.htm

WASHINGTON – A Newport News, Va., federal jury has found Jeffrey Charles guilty for conspiring with his daughter and son-in-law to defraud the United States, the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced today. Charles was found guilty of one count of conspiracy, three counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false tax returns and one count of filing a false tax return.

According to the evidence presented at trial, Charles conspired with his daughter and son-in-law to impair and impede the IRS in ascertaining, computing, assessing and collecting federal income taxes. The evidence also proved that Charles aided and assisted in the preparation of three false tax returns in his daughter’s name for tax years 2000, 2001 and 2005, and attached false documents to each tax return. The evidence at trial also established that Charles filed a false tax return in his own name for tax year 2006 in which he allegedly falsely reported earning $0.00 income.

Senior Judge Henry Coke Morgan, Jr. scheduled sentencing for Feb. 25, 2012 in Norfolk, Va.

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Bruce King, the Owner and Operator of Premier Tax, Pleads Guilty to Fraud and Filing False Return

Source- http://www.justice.gov/tax/2012/txdv121315.htm

WASHINGTON – Bruce King, the owner and operator of Premier Tax, pleaded guilty in federal court this week to charges of conspiring to defraud the United States and filing false tax returns, the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced today. Additionally, on Thursday, Vonecia Orum, a return preparer who worked at Premier Tax, pleaded guilty to delivering false tax returns to the IRS.

With the guilty pleas of King and Orum, a total of nine people associated with Premier Tax have now been convicted of crimes. Six were named in a 28-count indictment that was returned on March 28, 2012. These six were King and Orum, as well as Antoinette Djonret, Nakesha Donaldson, Angela Smith and Jenika Williams, all of whom had previously pleaded guilty. In July and August of 2011, three other defendants – Tonja Toney, Kimberly Womack and Kina Lane – pleaded guilty to criminal informations charging them with filing false tax returns.

According to court documents, Premier Tax was a tax preparation business operated by King that had several locations in Alabama and in Georgia. King held training sessions in which he taught preparers how to falsify tax returns in order to fraudulently increase clients’ tax refunds. Those he taught went on to work at Premier Tax and filed numerous false tax returns. According to court documents, the tax loss caused by these fraudulent returns exceeded $1 million.

Court records also indicated that in addition to falsifying tax returns, some preparers working at Premier Tax also used false dependents on tax returns – they would use people’s personal identifying information, without their consent, as dependents on clients’ tax returns. Four of the defendants—Djonret, Donaldson, Smith, and Williams—were involved in this aspect of Premier Tax and they pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated identity theft, in addition to charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States or filing false tax returns.

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Aristotle R. Matsa (Rick Matsa) was Sentenced to 85 Months in Prison for Tax Fraud and Obstruction of Justice Crimes

Source- http://www.justice.gov/tax/2012/txdv121316.htm

WASHINGTON – The Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced today that attorney Aristotle R. Matsa (Rick Matsa), of Worthington, Ohio, was sentenced to 85 months in prison by the Judge Edmund A. Sargus Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. Judge Sargus also ordered Matsa to pay a criminal fine of $265,000, make restitution to the IRS in the amount of $388,000, and pay restitution to a client from whom Rick Matsa embezzled funds in the amount of $24,069.

After a five-week trial in Columbus, Ohio, a jury convicted Matsa of numerous tax fraud and obstruction of justice related offenses, including witness tampering and making a false statement. Matsa’s mother and co-defendant, Loula Z. Matsa, was sentenced today to three years of probation and ordered to pay a $150,000 criminal fine for her role in the conspiracy with her son to obstruct justice, commit perjury and make false statements.

Rick Matsa individually was convicted of one count of a corrupt endeavor to obstruct and impede the IRS, 15 counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false and fraudulent tax returns, that related to five different trusts; one count of willfully failing to file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR); one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice, commit perjury and make false statements; two counts of witness tampering; one count of submitting a false statement; and one count of obstruction of justice.

According to the indictment, which was returned on June 23, 2010, and the evidence admitted at trial, Rick Matsa, who in addition to being an attorney was also an architect, a real estate broker, and a licensed minister in Ohio, created and operated several nominee entities in order to disguise and conceal his income and assets from the IRS. The false trust return charges relate to filings for at least five separate trust entities during the tax years 2003 to 2005. In fact, the evidence at trial showed that he had been filing similarly false returns for the trusts dating back to 1990. Each of the trusts reported receiving significant amounts of interest income each year, yet no income tax was ever reported as due because the trust tax returns fraudulently claimed deductions for distributions purportedly paid annually to a foreign beneficiary.

The evidence at trial established, however, that Rick Matsa used funds from these trusts to purchase a 150-acre farm in Hocking County as well as a home in Worthington, both of which he used as a personal residence. In addition, the trusts’ purported foreign beneficiary was located in the Netherlands and testified that she was not the beneficiary of the trusts.

The evidence at trial also showed that Rick Matsa violated FBAR, the foreign bank account reporting requirements, by failing to disclose his ownership and control over a foreign bank account held in The Netherlands during calendar year 2003, where an account was maintained by Rick Matsa with funds in excess of $300,000 from at least August 2003 to November 2003.

The evidence at trial further showed that after learning of the federal grand jury investigation into his business activities in May of 2006, Rick Matsa, together with Loula Matsa and others, conspired to obstruct justice by concealing evidence from the grand jury, making false statements to the grand jury, creating false documents, tampering with witnesses and lying to federal investigators.

George Pappas, formerly an attorney in Urbana, Ohio, who previously pleaded guilty to making false statements to federal agents during the grand jury investigation, testified at trial. Pappas testified that he falsely claimed ownership of Rick Matsa’s law firm, located in the Short North area of Columbus, in their efforts to withhold records from the grand jury. Pappas was sentenced to two years probation and a home confinement term earlier this year.

Rick Matsa’s tenant, P. Maria Galloway, the owner of an art gallery located next door to Matsa’s law firm, also testified after pleading guilty to conspiracy to obstruct justice. Galloway testified that she signed numerous documents at Rick Matsa’s direction, including federal income tax returns for Matsa’s law firm and a number of his nominee entities, which Matsa used as part of his scheme to obstruct the IRS, and that she made false statements to agents and the grand jury during the investigation. Galloway also was sentenced to a two year term of probation earlier this year with some home confinement.

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Enyinnaya Udo was Sentenced to Two Years in Prison for Preparing False Tax Returns

Source- http://www.justice.gov/tax/2012/txdv121305.htm

WASHINGTON – Enyinnaya Udo was sentenced to 24 months in prison today and ordered by U.S. District Judge Barbara J. Rothstein to pay more than $262,966 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as a condition of supervised release, the Justice Department and IRS announced.

Following a four-day trial, a federal jury convicted Udo of 25 counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false individual income tax returns. According to the indictment and evidence presented at trial, Udo operated a tax preparation business called Anic and Associates, CPAs PC located in Washington. Udo prepared false 2005 through 2008 individual income tax returns for seven taxpayers, falsely reporting that the taxpayers had unreimbursed employee expenses.

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Federal Court in Ohio Issues Preliminary Injunction Against Instant Tax Service Franchiser and Its CEO

Source- http://www.justice.gov/tax/2012/txdv121304.htm

WASHINGTON – A federal court has preliminarily enjoined ITS Financial LLC, the parent company that owns the Instant Tax Service tax-preparation franchise operation, the Justice Department announced today. Dayton, Ohio-based ITS claims to be the fourth-largest tax-preparation firm in the nation, according to the government complaint in the civil lawsuit. Judge Timothy Black of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio signed the order, which also applies to the company’s CEO, Fesum Ogbazion. The defendants consented to the preliminary injunction.

The preliminary injunction will remain in force pending the court’s decision following trial in the case. Trial on the government’s suit seeking to shut down the defendants with a permanent injunction is scheduled to begin on May 20, 2013, in Dayton.

According to the government complaint in the case, ITS franchisees routinely prepare and file fraudulent federal tax returns, fabricate deductions and invent phony businesses. The suit further alleges that ITS franchisees file tax returns without customer authorization and without proper employer-issued W-2 wage statements, and charge customers exorbitant and bogus fees. Defendants and their franchisees allegedly lure mostly low-income customers into ITS stores by offering deceptive and misleading loans such as “Instant Cash” or “Holiday” loans, often before the tax return filing season begins. Defendants have denied the allegations in the complaint.

Under the terms of the preliminary injunction, defendants are barred from encouraging or preparing false or fraudulent tax returns, from filing tax returns without customer authorization, from charging customers exorbitant and bogus fees, from deceiving their customers and the government, and from otherwise violating the tax laws. In addition, defendants are barred from offering any Instant Cash loan or similar loan product that relies on a customer’s paystub (rather than an employer-issued IRS W-2 year-end wage statement), and from offering any loan product that violates any federal or state law. Defendants may offer only genuine loan products provided by independent, third-party lenders. The preliminary injunction also requires defendants, at their own expense, to hire third-party monitors who will review and audit tax returns prepared by all ITS franchisees. In addition, defendants must hire a neutral company to conduct “secret shopper” visits to ITS franchisees to test their compliance with the law.

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