Diandre Mentor, Conspiracy to Defraud the United States, Florida 2023

ORLANDO, FL — Last week, Diandre Mentor, a Florida man, pleaded guilty before Magistrate Judge David A. Baker for the Middle District of Florida to conspiring to defraud the United States by filing false tax returns for clients.

According to court documents and statements made in court, Mentor worked for a tax return preparation company named Neighborhood Advance Tax (NAT) between January 2017 and 2019. He and his co-conspirators operated a dozen offices throughout Florida that fraudulently inflated client tax refunds by fabricating deductions on their returns.

Mentor and his co-conspirators also held periodic training sessions at which they taught other NAT employees how to prepare fraudulent tax returns.

In 2020, Mentor and his co-conspirators started their own tax return preparation business named Smart Tax & Finance that eventually expanded to 12 franchise locations throughout South and Central Florida. As with Neighborhood Advance Tax, Mentor and his co-conspirators prepared false tax returns for clients, including by fabricating deductions.

As before, Mentor and his co-conspirators also taught franchise owners and employees how to prepare false returns for clients.

In total, Mentor caused a tax loss to the IRS of $3,090,077.

Several of Mentor’s co-conspirators previously pleaded guilty. Abryle Y De La Cruz and Emmanual Almonor pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the United States. Adon Hemley pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the United States and to aiding the preparation and filing of false returns. Isaiah Hayes pleaded guilty to aiding the preparation and filing of false returns.

The two remaining co-conspirators, Franklin Carter Jr. and Jonathan Carrillo, are scheduled to go to trial on June 2.

Mentor will be sentenced at a later date. He faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison as well as a period of supervised release, restitution, and monetary penalties.

A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

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