California Tax Preparer Pleads Guilty to Filing False Returns and Fraudulent COVID Benefits

Kerwin Aldric Jordan, 71, of Castaic, California, and formerly of Pebble Beach, California, pleaded guilty yesterday to four counts of aiding in the preparation of false federal income tax returns and one count of wire fraud.

According to his plea agreement, Jordan was the president of The Jordan Corporation, a tax preparation business, and also owned and operated a business called Jordan and Jordan A Financial Conquest. Jordan held himself out as a tax attorney and certified public accountant, neither of which he was.

Jordan prepared federal tax returns for his clients which fraudulently reduced his taxpayer-clients’ taxable income. He falsely reported that the taxpayer-clients had one or more businesses, even though he knew the businesses did not exist. He also reported losses for these non-existent businesses and used those losses to reduce the taxpayer-clients’ taxable income.

For example, Jordan reduced a married couple’s $2 million income with fraudulent expenses of more than $1 million for non-existent businesses, eliminating additional taxes the couple would have owed and generating a tax refund of almost $25,000. The couple paid Jordan nearly $28,000 for the preparation of their return.

From 2018 to 2023, Jordan filed more than 1,370 federal tax returns for clients, which reported total business losses over $73 million. Prosecutors contend that the tax returns Jordan prepared resulted in more than $25 million in losses to the United States Treasury.

Jordan also lied on loan applications for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL), two programs Congress created in March 2020 to help businesses weather the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Jordan applied for PPP loans for his companies and received a total of $188,667. He also applied for EIDL loans for Jordan and Jordan; Euphrates Wealth Asset Management, of which he was the owner; and Lifestyles of the Rich in Faith Church, a non-profit organization of which he was the principal, receiving a total of $276,600.

U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson for the Central District of California scheduled an Oct. 5 sentencing hearing, at which time Jordan will face a maximum sentence of 32 years in prison.

According to the plea agreement, the defendant caused over $25 million in losses to the U.S. Treasury. With the defendant’s plea, the United States has secured a significant victory in its efforts to combat tax evasion and wire fraud.

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