US Justice Department sues to stop false Haitian tax returns
FLORIDA, United States (CMC) —The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) says it has filed a lawsuit in a federal court here to bar a Lauderhill, Florida tax return preparation business and several Haitian corporate officers from preparing false tax returns for their customers.
On Wednesday, the DOJ said that the suit asks the court to bar Aleluya Universal Accounting Services Inc and its officers Frantz Petit-Dos, Luczor Fertilie and David Joseph from preparing federal income tax returns for others.
The government also requests a court order requiring the business and these officers to “disgorge the gross receipts they obtained from preparing federal tax returns that make, among other things, false claims.”
The complaint alleges that the defendants prepare tax returns that unlawfully understate income tax liabilities and overstate refunds by “fabricating and/or exaggerating deductions and tax credits their clients are not eligible to take.”
For example, the complaint claims that defendants claimed fuel tax credits for customers who did not qualify for this credit.
In particular, Joseph falsely advised one customer that she was eligible for the fuel tax credit because she was self-employed and drove herself to work, according to the complaint.
Similarly, Fertilien told the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that he advised anyone with receipts for gas used in their vehicles could claim the fuel tax credit, the complaint says.
The government alleges in its complaint that Petit-Dos’s, Fertilien’s and Joseph’s “misconduct predates the creation of Aleluya.”
Prior to Joseph forming Aleluya in June 2013, Petit-Dos and Fertilien owned a tax return preparation business called Imperial Taxation that was located at the same Lauderhill location as Aleluya, according to the complaint.
The complaint alleges that Petit-Dos, Fertilien, and Joseph, a return preparer at Imperial Taxation, prepared false tax returns and committed other violations of the Internal Revenue Code while at Imperial Taxation.
Altogether, the complaint alleges that the loss to the US Treasury from the defendants’ activities may be in the millions of dollars.
