SCRANTON - The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced today that Donald Royce, age 40, of Scranton, Pennsylvania, was indicted by a federal grand jury for tax preparation fraud charges.
According to United States Attorney Bruce D. Brandler, Royce was a tax preparer in Scranton who defrauded a number of local residents in 2014. The indictment alleges that Royce prepared fraudulent tax returns for multiple taxpayers causing more than $250,000 in losses. Royce gave the taxpayers a client copy of their tax return, then made material fraudulent changes to the client copy, and submitted the false return to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for his financial benefit. The indictment further alleges that Royce took clients’ IRS payment checks and deposited them directly in to his own account without ever remitting the amount to the IRS, all without the taxpayers’ knowledge.
The case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigations. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Evan Gotlob.
The maximum penalty under federal law for this offense is 23 years of imprisonment, a term of supervised release following imprisonment, and a maximum fine of $2,250,000. Under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, the Judge is also required to consider and weigh a number of factors, including the nature, circumstances and seriousness of the offense; the history and characteristics of the defendant; and the need to punish the defendant, protect the public and provide for the defendant's educational, vocational and medical needs. For these reasons, the statutory maximum penalty for the offense is not an accurate indicator of the potential sentence for a specific defendant.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
