A Riverside County man has been brought to justice for his role in a massive false tax return scheme, the Justice Department announced Monday.
Salvador Gonzalez, 46, of Corona, pleaded guilty to three counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false tax returns, a crime that’s landed him in serious hot water.
According to court documents and statements made in court, Gonzalez operated Grace’s Lighthouse Resource Center, Inc., a tax preparation business, starting in 2013. Since then, he has prepared or assisted in the preparation of more than 11,000 tax returns that requested refunds from the IRS totaling more than $38 million.
But here’s the kicker: Gonzalez directed his clients to create a phony corporation and title their homes, cars, and other assets in the name of the corporation. He then referred those clients to an associate to prepare these sham corporation’s tax returns. The associate would provide the clients with a blank spreadsheet and request that they input their business expenses into that spreadsheet. At Gonzalez’s direction, the clients would include personal expenses, such as their mortgage payments, car payments, and utility bills, and then provide the spreadsheet to the associate. The associate would, in turn, use the spreadsheet to prepare the business tax returns, which inevitably would show a loss.
Gonzalez then prepared the clients’ individual income tax returns, which incorporated the fraudulent business losses and offset their income. To further reduce the clients’ taxes owed to the IRS, Gonzalez also fabricated deductions on the personal returns such as unreimbursed employee expenses, cash contributions to charity, and medical and dental expenses. As a result of Gonzalez’s fraudulent return-preparation practices, his clients paid less taxes than they owed.
Gonzalez profited from his return-preparation business, charging clients a flat fee of $500 per tax return before 2019. In 2019, he started charging clients 1% of their gross income as a fee for his services.
United States District Judge Jesus G. Bernal scheduled an October 7 sentencing hearing in this case, at which time Gonzalez will face a maximum penalty of three years in prison for each count. That’s a total of up to 9 years behind bars.
The IRS Criminal Investigation is investigating the case, with Assistant United States Attorney Eli A. Alcaraz of the Riverside Branch Office and Trial Attorney Lauren K. Pope of the Justice Department’s Tax Division prosecuting the case.
Related Federal Cases
- Susanville Prison Tax Scam Lands Oklahoma Men in Hot Water · Oklahoma
- Tax Fraudster Maness Gets 41 Months in $228M Scheme · South Carolina
- San Jose Tax Fraudster Nguyen Admits to $1.5M Scheme · California
- Car Czar’s $90M Fraud Lands Him 10 Years · California
- Sacramento Trio Admits to Nearly $1 Million Tax Refund Scheme · California
Key Facts
- State: California
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: White Collar Crime
- Source: Official Source ↗
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