Brooklyn Tax Return Preparer Indicted for Preparing Six Years of False Tax Returns

A Brooklyn, New York, tax preparer was indicted by a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of New York and charged with 30 counts of aiding in the preparation of false income tax returns, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced following her Dec. 22 arrest and the unsealing of the indictment.

Awilda Rosario owned and operated a Brooklyn-based tax preparation business called Edujas Multiservices Corporation, according to the indictment.  The indictment charges that Rosario prepared false individual income tax returns for taxpayer-clients for at least six years, spanning tax years 2008 through 2013.  Rosario allegedly attached false schedules that reported business losses the taxpayers did not incur and attached schedules that reported inflated or fictitious deductions.  Rosario also attached forms claiming fictitious education and fuel tax credits that the taxpayers were not entitled to receive.

The indictment further alleges that after the IRS revoked the electronic filing number for Edujas Multiservices Corporation, Rosario obtained at least two different e-file provider numbers and continued to prepare and submit false tax returns for her clients, listing a different paid tax return preparer and tax preparer firm to conceal her involvement.

If convicted, Rosario faces a statutory maximum sentence of three years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 for each count.

The case was investigated by special agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation.  Assistant Chief Jorge Almonte and Trial Attorney Shawn T. Noud of the Justice Department’s Tax Division are prosecuting the case.

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