NJ Tax Preparer Sentenced To 27 Years For Fraudulent Tax Returns

UNION COUNTY, NJ — A former employee of Tax Pro’s and Tax Solutions & Associates, a tax preparation business located in Essex and Union counties, was sentenced Thursday to 27 months in prison for conspiring to defraud the United States by filing false income tax returns.

Angelo Thompson, 39, of Reistertown, Maryland, previously pleaded guilty to the charges, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito confirmed.

According to documents filed in this case, from at least 2009 to April 2015, Joseph Kenny Batts was co-owner, along with Damien Askew, of Tax Pro’s, a tax return preparation and payroll business in Essex County, where Thompson, Tony V. Russell, Rudolph Sanders, Batts, and Askew prepared tax returns.

In order to boost their business, federal authorities said Thompson and these others conspired to falsify their clients’ federal income tax returns for the purpose of generating refunds from the IRS in amounts that their clients were not entitled to receive. The fraudulent practices that Thompson, Russell, Sanders, Batts, and Askew used to inflate tax refunds included fabricating and inflating credits for education and child care; deductions, such as charitable contributions and unreimbursed employee expenses; and Schedule C business losses.

Federal authorities said Thompson and other members of the conspiracy also permitted Batts to use their paid taxpayer identification numbers (PTIN) – the identification number that paid tax preparers are required to place on tax returns that they have prepared – when preparing tax returns to conceal Batts’ identity as the actual tax return preparer, due to, among other things, Batts’ prior federal tax fraud conviction.

After law enforcement executed a search warrant at Tax Pro’s in or about April 2015, Batts discontinued Tax Pro’s and opened Tax Solutions and Associates in Union, where Thompson, Russell, and Batts continued preparing false federal income tax returns, prosecutors said.

By fraudulently inflating the amounts of the tax refunds, prosecutors said Thompson and his co-conspirators caused a total tax loss to the IRS in excess of $1.6 million.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Askew, Sanders, and Russell, have pleaded guilty to their roles in the scheme. Batts was convicted at trial in September 2019 of one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and five counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false federal income tax returns.

Russell has been sentenced to four years in prison; Askew, Sanders and Batts are awaiting sentencing.

In addition to the prison term, Thompson was sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered him to pay restitution of $103,320.