Nicholas Laws, Tax Fraud, North Carolina 2021

Tax Scammer Gets Pinched

Nicholas Laws, a Winston-Salem tax preparer, has been caught red-handed in a massive tax fraud scheme that swindled the IRS out of $2,934,891.

According to court documents, Laws, who managed the Winston-Salem branch of Tax Mind, a tax-return preparation business, from 2014 to 2019, prepared fraudulent returns for clients that reported false wages and business incomes to increase the clients’ refunds.

Laws charged additional fees to prepare false returns, sometimes exceeding $1,000. He also filed a false personal income tax return for 2014 and failed to file tax returns for 2015 through 2019, despite having an obligation to do so.

The tax scam mastermind faces a statutory maximum sentence of three years in prison for assisting in the preparation of a false tax return and three years in prison for filing a false personal income tax return.

Laws agreed to pay restitution to the IRS in the amount of $184,072. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Laws is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 20, 2021. The case is being investigated by the IRS-Criminal Investigation and is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of North Carolina.

Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice’s Tax Division and Acting U.S. Attorney Sandra J. Hairston for the Middle District of North Carolina made the announcement.

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