Leigha Simonton, United States Attorney, Northern District of Texas | U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Texas
A former tax preparer from Mansfield has been sentenced to nearly five years in federal prison for his involvement in tax and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan fraud schemes. The announcement was made by Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, Chad E. Meacham.
Festus Adenisimi, 65, pleaded guilty in September 2024 to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States. On March 6, 2025, U.S. Senior District Judge Barbara M. G. Lynn sentenced him to 57 months in federal prison and ordered him to pay $10,283,737.65 in restitution.
Court documents reveal that Adenisimi owned a tax preparation business named FA Tax. There, he and other tax preparers filed fraudulent tax returns on behalf of their clients, which led to the IRS issuing refunds based on these false claims. Adenisimi also admitted to falsifying his own tax returns.
As part of his plea agreement, Adenisimi confessed to obtaining two PPP loans fraudulently under the Small Business Administration’s COVID-19 relief program, totaling $760,415. The court's restitution order covers both the tax fraud and PPP loan fraud activities.
The investigation was conducted by IRS-Criminal Investigations with Assistant U.S. Attorney Marty Basu prosecuting the case.
