A man from Augusta, Georgia, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with a fraudulent tax preparation scheme. Allen Brown, 41, operated a "ghost" tax preparation business without identifying himself as a paid preparer on federal income tax returns, contrary to IRS regulations.
Tara M. Lyons, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia, announced that Brown now faces up to 20 years in prison, along with supervised release, restitution, and monetary penalties.
According to the plea agreement, during 2022 and 2023, Brown and others ran their operation from several locations in Augusta: 1850 Gordon Highway, Suite C; a church; and Brown's residence. As part of the scheme, they falsified information on clients' tax returns to secure inflated refunds. The U.S. Department of Treasury was defrauded out of $1,003,631 through this activity.
Brown offered two filing options: the "Standard" option and the "I’m Not Scared" option. The former resulted in refunds between $2,000 and $9,000 by falsely claiming Sick and Family Leave Credits among other items. The latter led to refunds between $14,000 and $30,000 by falsely claiming Fuel Tax Credits and manipulating income and expenses on various schedules.
Clients were charged a fee amounting to ten percent of their refund. Importantly, clients did not receive copies or reviews of their prepared returns before electronic filing with the IRS.
The case is being investigated by the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation division and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney George J.C. Jacobs III.
