FLORIDA, USA (CMC) — The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) says a federal court here has permanently enjoined Haitians Jean-Philippe Boursiquot and Roberton Boursiquot from preparing federal income tax returns for others.

DOJ said the court also entered judgments against Jean-Philippe Boursiquot and Roberton Boursiquot in favour of the United States in the amounts of US$250,000 and US$100,000, respectively, “on the United States’ claim for the disgorgement of ill-gotten fees they charged customers for the preparation of federal tax returns”.

The Boursiquots consented to the injunction order and money judgments, the DOJ said.

In May 2018 the court also entered an injunction order against B&C Royalty Multi-Services, Inc, which operated in Oakland Park, Florida, and RBS Flamboyant Solutions, Inc, which operated in Hollywood, Florida, prohibiting both corporations from preparing federal income tax returns for others.

The complaint alleges that Jean-Philippe Boursiquot, Roberton Boursiquot, and their corporations — B&C Royalty Multi-Services, Inc and RBS Flamboyant Solutions, Inc, “continually claimed education credits for taxpayers who did not incur qualifying expenses”, according to the DOJ.

The complaint also alleged that they fabricated business income or expenses in order to qualify for the earned income credit.

The complaint further alleged that the Boursiquots and their corporations “charged their customers exorbitant fees without the customers’ knowledge, and quoted refunds to customers that were substantially smaller than the refunds requested on the returns filed with the IRS”.

It was also reported that they would then pocket the excess as preparation fees, often without the customers’ knowledge.