FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FRIDAY, MAY 7, 2004 WWW.USDOJ.GOV TAX (202) 514-2007 TDD (202) 514-1888 WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Justice Department today announced that a federal court in Las Vegas, Nevada, has issued permanent injunctions against Oryan Management and Financial Services (based in Ontario, California), ADA Adventure, and four individuals, barring them from organizing or selling abusive tax shelters or arrangements that advise or encourage customers to attempt to evade federal taxes. The orders also permanently bar the defendants from preparing federal income tax returns for others, require the defendants to give copies of the orders to their customers and require some defendants to post the orders on their websites. The defendants must also give lists of their customers names, addresses, and social security numbers to the Justice Department.
The four individual defendants covered by todays court orders are all California residents-Daniel W. Porter of Chino, Robert Goetsch of Hayward, Michelle M. Hernandez of Upland, and Joseph Prokop of Mt. Baldy. The defendants agreed to the orders, which were signed by senior U.S. District Judge Lloyd George of the U.S. District Court for Nevada, without admitting wrongdoing.
Todays order is the result of a civil lawsuit filed by the Justice Department on April 14 against a telemarketing firm, the National Audit Defense Network, known as NADN, and other defendants, including Oryan, ADA Adventure, and the individuals included in todays order. In that suit, court papers allege that Oryan sold a sham-website scheme designed to enable customers to claim a bogus disabled-access credit on their income tax returns. Justice Department filings say that the websites were designed to help customers claim to have a business with a website, and then improperly claim tax deductions and credits for supposedly modifying the website-purportedly to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). A copy of the Justice Departments complaint is posted at: http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/04_tax_223.htm.
The Department of Justice is committed to stopping the scams that defraud not only the Federal Treasury but also all the law-abiding taxpayers who are left to pick up the tab, said Eileen J. OConnor, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Departments Tax Division. A first step in this effort is to obtain court orders barring the scam promotions. This case is part of the Justice Departments initiative to stop the spread of fraudulent tax schemes. The Department has previously brought injunction suits against other alleged tax-scheme promoters. Information on these suits can be found at: http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/03_tax_649.htm http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/03_tax_722.htm.
More information about the Justice Departments Tax Division is available at: http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/index.html. 04-309
Source: US Department of Justice
