Gene Hersholt Williamson II, Tax Evasion, North Carolina 2020

State: North Carolina
Category: White Collar Crime
Source: <a href="https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/north-carolina-man-sentenced-36-months-federal-prison-preparing-false-tax-returns" style="color:#cc0000;" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">DOJ Press Release ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Â Ã¢â‚¬â€

A North Carolina man has been sentenced to 36 months in federal prison for his role in a tax evasion scheme that cost the IRS over $550,000.

Gene Hersholt Williamson II, 54, operated a tax return preparation business out of Jacksonville, North Carolina, between 2012 and 2018. Williamson fraudulently inflated his clients’ claimed refunds by reporting fictitious Schedule C businesses on his clients’ returns.

According to court documents, Williamson would either create a fraudulent Schedule C business for clients with minimal income to report additional income and maximize the claimed earned income tax credit, or he would create businesses with significant expenses to reduce their income and qualify them for the earned income tax credit.

To conceal his involvement in the scheme, Williamson did not list himself as the paid return preparer on the returns he prepared. In return, he received ten percent of the refunds for his services.

The scheme was not limited to Williamson’s clients. He also filed false tax returns for himself from 2012 through 2017, resulting in a tax loss to the IRS of over $550,000.

U.S. Attorney Robert J. Higdon Jr. for the Eastern District of North Carolina and Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman announced the sentencing after U.S. District Judge James C. Dever III handed down the 36-month prison sentence.

Williamson was also ordered to pay $637,000 in restitution. The IRS-Criminal Investigations investigated the case, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Susan B. Menzer and Tax Division Trial Attorney William Guappone prosecuted the case, with the case number being No. 7:20-CR-00133-D.

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