SCHEME RESULTED IN $28 MILLION TAX LOSS

A man was ordered to pay $403,908 and sentenced to 72 months for helping clients receive millions in fraudulent refunds.
A California man was sentenced to 72 months in federal prison for preparing and filing false tax returns, a decade-long scheme that resulted in a tax loss of at least $28 million to the IRS.

Salvador Gonzalez, 44, of Corona, California, was also ordered to pay $403,908 in restitution. Gonzalez pleaded in June to three counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false tax returns.

Starting in 2013, Gonzalez operated Grace’s Lighthouse Resource Center, a tax preparation business in Corona. He directed clients to create phony corporations and title their homes, cars, and other assets in the names of these entities. Clients were then referred to an associate who prepared the tax returns for the sham corporations.

Under Gonzalez’s guidance, clients included personal expenses such as mortgage payments, car payments, and utility bills. These expenses were used to fabricate business tax returns, which reported losses that fraudulently reduced clients’ individual income taxes.

Gonzalez further manipulated personal tax returns by fabricating deductions for unreimbursed employee expenses, cash contributions to charity, and medical and dental expenses. Gonzalez charged clients a fee of 1 percent of their gross income.