Fraud Friday: Five years doesn’t seem all that bad


A Los Angeles tax preparer and former FTB employee is serving a little over five years for preparing tax returns that fraudulently claimed OID withholdings. Over six years, these returns claimed $5.5 million in refunds; the IRS paid out about $3 million before catching on to the scheme. Considering that the statutory maximum for the conviction was 78 years in prison, five years doesn’t seem all that bad.

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