JOHN LABEE, age 35, a resident of Slidell, Louisiana, was charged today in a thirteen-count Indictment with nine counts of assisting in the preparation of false tax documents, two counts of making false statements on his own tax returns, one count of attempted mail fraud, and one count of lying to a federal Grand Jury, announced United States Attorney Dana J. Boente.
According to the Indictment, beginning in about 2005, LABEE owned and operated two tax preparation businesses in Slidell, IP Financial Services, Inc. and Milennium [sic] Bookkeeping Services. An investigation revealed between tax years 2008 and 2010, LABEE regularly claimed false deductions and claimed false federal tax withholdings for his clients to generate large refunds to which they were not entitled. LABEE also failed to report his income from his tax preparation business and falsified the amount of federal tax withholdings on his own tax returns that resulted in LABEE receiving refunds to which he was not entitled.
The Indictment also alleges that LABEE filed a loss claim to the Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF) seeking over $958,000 in compensation for losses he claimed IP Financial Services suffered as a result of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill incident. To support his claim, LABEE submitted false tax records that were not true and had never been filed with the IRS.
Lastly, the Indictment alleges that LABEE lied when he testified under oath on
March 14, 2013, before the Grand Jury that he had not prepared any tax returns in 2013 other than his own. The Indictment alleges that LABEE had prepared the tax return of at least one other individual.
If convicted, LABEE faces a maximum term of three years imprisonment each as to Counts 1 through 11; 20 years as to Count 12; and five years as to Count 13, for a maximum total sentence of 58 years in prison, followed by up to three years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine.
United States Attorney Boente reiterated that the Indictment is merely a charge and that the guilt of the defendant must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
The case is being investigated by agents from the Internal Revenue Service- Criminal Investigation Division. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jordan Ginsberg.
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Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
