Four tax preparers sentenced to federal prison in $8M North Texas fraud case
Four tax preparers have been sentenced after they were convicted of defrauding the IRS of nearly $8 million in a North Texas case, according to Acting U.S. Attorney Nancy Larson.
“The defendants orchestrated a multi-year tax fraud scheme that caused substantial loss to the government,” said Larson, who heads the U..S Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas.
Festus Adenisimi, 65, of Mansfield, was the owner of FA Tax, which is a tax preparation business in Grand Prairie. He and the other tax preparers composed fraudulent tax returns that would often cause the IRS to issue refunds for their clients, authorities said in a news release.
The IRS is estimated to have lost more than $7.5 million from these tax returns, according to court documents.
As part of Adenisimi’s plea deal, he also admitted to fraudulently obtaining two Paycheck Protection Program loans that totaled $760,415 under the Small Business Administration’s COVID-19 relief program. The charges related to the PPP loans will go along with his guilty plea to falsely preparing tax returns.
Adenisimi was sentenced to 57 months in prison and ordered to pay $10,283,737.65 in restitution by U.S. Senior District Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn.
The three other tax preparers who worked for FA Tax and pleaded guilty to falsely preparing tax returns were:
Sunshyne Endurance Ogungbemi, 37, of Waxahachie, Texas, was sentenced to 18 months in prison in April and ordered to pay $7,533,550.84 in restitution.
Chris Mary Tijerina, 40, of Crandall, Texas, was sentenced to 15 months in prison in April and ordered to pay $7,560,661.69 in restitution.
Cynthia Bradley, 45, of Belleville, Illinois, was sentenced to 15 months in prison in June and ordered to pay $5,768,106.28 in restitution.
Each tax preparer was sentenced on June 26 by Judge Lynn.
“The 105 months of federal prison time for the members of FA Tax who falsified tax returns illustrate that tax fraud is not a victimless crime,” said Gerardo Gomez, assistant special agent in charge of IRS Criminal Investigation’s Dallas Field Office.