Plus, tax preparers from Louisiana, Mississippi, and New York got into some trouble.
Former accountant at Somerby Golf Club in southeast MN charged with stealing $450,000 from business [CBS Minnesota]
Gordon Craig Perkins, who was in charge of handling the money, expenses, and bills for Somerby Golf Club in Byron, MN, was charged last week with stealing about $450,000 from the golf club.
Perkins faces seven counts of theft by swindle, seven counts of diversion of corporate property, and one count of issuing dishonored checks.
He worked for Somerby Golf Club as an accountant from December 2011 to August 2019.
In August 2019, golf club executives discovered numerous unauthorized charges on three company credit cards.
“Some examples of charges were for groceries and other purchases at Sam’s Club, HVAC services, appliances, auto repair work, dental bills, lawn care services, utilities, medical bills at the Mayo Clinic, accounting and legal fees, local nail salons ($300 per visit), restaurants, time shares, air travel, hotels, car rentals, and monthly mobile phone services,” the complaint says.
The credit card charges ranged from $1,307.66 in 2012 to $108,565.63 in 2018.
Perkins is also accused of making false claims for reimbursement from the golf club’s cash account.
Working Wardrobes accountant charged with embezzling $48,000 days after blaze burns down OC nonprofit [CBS Los Angeles]
It wasn’t a great week for Irvine, CA-based nonprofit Working Wardrobes, which provides training and professional clothes for job seekers. First, on Feb. 2, a four-alarm fire destroyed everything, including the charity’s donation center, wardrobing center, career center, and corporate office. Then on Feb. 7, the nonprofit’s controller, Alapati Mulivanu, was charged with embezzling more than $48,000 from the charity.
He faces one felony count of grand theft by embezzlement by a clerk, agent, or servant. A restitution claim of $48,167.57 was included on the criminal complaint.
Mulivanu, 55, who was being held without bail, listed his occupation as controller for Working Wardrobes on his LinkedIn page.
Hoboken-based accountant sentenced to 12 months for tax evasion [Justice Department]
Louis Picardo was sentenced to a year and a day in prison on Feb. 4 for evading more than $914,000 in taxes on income he earned from his accounting practice and various rental properties he owned.
Picardo, 64, served as the tax collector in Hoboken, NJ, between 1973 and 2008 and was a partner in Cannarozzi & Picardo LLC, a Hoboken-based accounting firm. He also was a member of multiple entities that managed both commercial and residential properties in Hudson County, NJ.
Picardo failed to report approximately $3,725,853 in taxable income that he collected from Cannarozzi & Picardo and the rental properties on federal income tax returns he filed with the IRS for the tax years 2012 to 2015, resulting in a tax loss to the United States of approximately $914,908.
In addition to the prison term, Picardo was sentenced to two years of supervised release and was ordered to pay restitution of $914,908 to the IRS.
Court convicts and bans former owner of tax business from working as tax preparer [WBRZ-TV]
Leroi Gorman Jackson, the former owner of a chain of tax preparation businesses who had been convicted of tax-related felonies, was banned last week by a New Orleans judge from working as a Louisiana tax preparer.
Jackson, the owner of Taxman Financial Services LLC, was arrested in 2017 for submitting income tax returns on behalf of his clients that contained phony business losses and resulted in $20,000 in fraudulent tax refunds; and for withholding an estimated $21,891 in payroll taxes from his employees’ paychecks, but failing to remit the withheld taxes to the state.
He pleaded guilty to a felony charge of filing false public records. Jackson pleaded guilty to a similar scheme in 2014.
Tax preparer from Westchester admits to filing false returns, ordered to pay $476K [Somers Daily Voice]
Michael Magnaldi, a former Westchester, NY-based tax preparer, is facing time behind bars after admitting to preparing and filing nearly $500,000 in false income tax returns.
Magnaldi, 54, pleaded guilty in White Plains federal court on Feb. 4 to one count of aiding and assisting in the filing of false tax returns for tax years 2014 to 2017 and one count of subscribing to a false tax return in 2016.
U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said that between 2014 and 2017, Magnaldi prepared 37 false Forms 1040 that contained false information, false Schedule D capital losses, false IRA contribution deductions, and false education tax credits.
He unsuccessfully attempted to conceal his role in preparing those fraudulent returns by not listing his or any name as the return preparer, to make it seem as if the returns were self-prepared.
Mississippi tax return preparer indicted for filing false tax returns [Justice Department]
Talvesha Glaude was arrested on Feb. 6 on a federal grand jury indictment charging her with aiding and assisting in the preparation of false tax returns and filing false personal tax returns.
From 2014 through 2019, Glaude, who owned a tax return preparation business under the names TMG Tax Service and Regional Tax Service, allegedly prepared and filed with the IRS fraudulent client tax returns claiming inflated refunds based on false income tax withholdings and education expenses. The indictment also charges that during those years, Glaude reported false withholdings and education expenses on her own personal returns.
If convicted, Glaude faces a maximum sentence of three years in prison for each count of the indictment.
