Tax Service Employee Pleads; Will Testify Against Boss

July 19, 2011

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tax12.jpgA woman who was employed at an Atmore tax preparation business has pleaded guilty to federal charges and has agreed to cooperate with authorities in the investigation into the company’s owner.

Federal authorities raided Preyear’s Tax and Check Cashing Services in 2010. Latina Locke, who worked at the business from 2009 to 2010,was indicted in late June 2011 on one charge of conspiracy to defraud the United States. She  pleaded guility  and faces up to five years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

But she’s expected to receive a lighter sentence in exchange for helping in the investigation and prosecution of her former boss, Alice Mobley.

According to court documents, Mobley instructed Locke to create false dependents on tax forms in order to claim exemptions and tax breaks. The plea agreement states Locke would use a Post-it Note and write down the number of dependents the client wanted to purchase and attach it to the tax form. Once in Mobley’s hands, she would add the dependents before filing the form with the IRS, according to the plea deal.

Mobley was due to plead guilty last month to a 99-count federal indictment, but she changed her mind and decided to go to trial.

Mobley faces a long list of charges, including preparing and filing false tax returns, mortgage fraud, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and filing false tax returns.  Mobley’s charges stem from alleged false tax returns filed from 2007 to 2009 through her business Preyear Tax and Check Cashing, LLC, located in Monroeville and its offices in Atmore and Thomasville.

Federal agents raided Mobley’s Preyear’s Tax & Check Cashing, LLC on Ridgely Street in Atmore and other locations in March, 2010. Federal court documents show that FBI and IRS agents seized over $300,000, boxes of tax documents, computers, vehicles and even a stuffed teddy bear when they raided the businesses and Mobley’s Monroeville home.

Mobley’s scheme filed tax returns claiming some $68 million in tax refunds, largely for Earned Income Credit and other tax credits, according to the Department of Justice. Mobley would falsely claim various dependent credits, either charged her clients an extra fee for the using the false dependents or pocketing the extra funds herself.

Mobley also “split” dependents, using the identity of some children on one return to obtain Earned Income Credit, and on other returns to obtain Child Credit and Dependent Care Credit. Mobley’s firm also prepared returns which claimed business tax deductions for business which did not exist and farm tax deductions for clients who did not have farms, the DOJ said.

Mobley was also charged with mortgage fraud and wire fraud in connection with fraud in regards to applications she made for mortgages to CitiBank and Wells Fargo.

Pictured above: A federal agent enters Preyear’s Tax & Check Cashing, LLC in Atmore March 4, 2010. Pictured inset: Agents search a vehicle at the business. NorthEscambia.com file photos, click to enlarge.

Comments

4 Responses to “Tax Service Employee Pleads; Will Testify Against Boss”

  1. joe on July 19th, 2011 5:00 pm

    A person who gets a “tax refund” without paying taxes is getting a hand out.

    you can not refund what has not been paid, or did I mis-understand the concept,
    oh I see now what it means…..

    Tax refund to those people that did not pay taxes is the refund of the taxes I paid!

    Now I understand why I pay so much each year.

  2. taxpayer on July 19th, 2011 12:20 pm

    Earned Income Tax Credit.-definition: money given to an individual who did not pay ANY taxes but gets a tax refund based on the number of children they have i.e. welfare!

    Let the shakedown of the taxpayer continue! Only 49% of population pay any income tax, note income tax not social security, medicare, etc; then the top 25% of taxpayers pay 75% of ALL the income tax paid. So basically the liberal ideology wealth redistribution continues.

    Yes, we taxpayers need to demand a closer look at the tax system and all the fraud taking place; be it high earners scamming or low earners “creating” dependents to get “welfare” tax credits.

  3. molino jim on July 19th, 2011 10:59 am

    Don’t you know that the people who had their taxes done by this group are in a sweat down mode right now. They are going to love the notices that they owe good old IRS money, and that the government does a good job of recovery.

  4. joe on July 19th, 2011 9:24 am

    white collar crime at it’s finest!

    Is this a modern day Robin Hood?
    Or
    Just a more refined and better organized common street criminal?

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News