A Solon, Ohio accountant is being charged for conspiring in a scheme for his clients involving funneling money illegally through his firm and under reporting taxable income for their federal tax returns.
From the Department of Justice press release:
Patrick DiPietro, 51, conspired with two other people and a company owned by the other people between 2007 and 2012 to impede the lawful function of the IRS in the assessment and collection of revenue, while enriching themselves with the tax savings.
The scheme involved checks being written from the company’s bank account payable to another entity controlled by DiPietro, purportedly as payments for rent and other business expenses. DiPietro deposited the checks into an account he controlled and then wrote checks back to the two individuals for approximately 90 percent of the amounts received, with DiPietro keeping approximately 10 percent as his “fee” for conducting the transactions, according to the information.
DiPietro also prepared federal income tax returns for the individuals and their business for 2007 through 2011 which falsely understated taxable income and overstated business deductions, according to the information.
During the IRS criminal investigation, DiPietro provided various fraudulent documents to the investigating agents in an attempt to legitimize or explain the checks written to his business entity from the other individuals’ business, including a commercial lease, a stock option agreements, a promissory note. None of the documents were, in fact, legitimate or had ever been executed by the parties, according to the information.
“This defendant enriched himself by taking money that should have been going into the U.S. Treasury,” Herdman said.
“Conspiring to impede the IRS by creating business checks for expenses not actually incurred and receiving a ‘kickback’ from those fraudulent business checks is not tax savings, but rather a recipe for criminal prosecution,” said Ryan L. Korner, Special Agent in Charge, IRS Criminal Investigation, Cincinnati Field Office.
If you have any concerns about the IRS or tax fraud, the best thing you can do is to contact a criminal tax attorney. Contact Robert J. Fedor if you have any questions or concerns.
