BOSTON - A Longmeadow tax preparer was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Springfield for filing false tax returns for customers of his business, JLF Tax Group, Inc.
Jonathan Fein, 55, of Longmeadow, Mass., was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Michael A. Ponsor to six months in prison, six months in a community corrections center, and six months in home confinement. The court also ordered Fein to repay $138,474 to the IRS and $29,000 to the Massachusetts Department of Revenue. Fein is permanently enjoined from preparing tax returns. In December 2012, Fein pleaded guilty to twenty-nine counts of falsely preparing tax returns.
Fein operated a tax preparation business called JLF Tax Group, Inc., d/b/a American Tax or American Tax Service (JLF), which was located in Springfield and Greenfield. Fein prepared individual federal income tax returns for various JLF customers, most of whom were unfamiliar with the Internal Revenue laws and relied upon Fein to prepare correct, accurate, and complete returns. Between January 2007 and April 2012, Fein prepared numerous tax returns that he knew were fraudulent, so that his customers could receive larger tax refunds from the IRS. Fein generally deducted his tax preparation fee from the fraudulently obtained tax refunds. In November 2010, Fein falsely stated to federal agents that he did not fraudulently prepare any tax returns in order to conceal his fraud.
United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz and William P. Offord, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigations in Boston, made the announcement today. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven H. Breslow of Ortiz’s Springfield Branch Office.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
