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A former loan officer at the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) pleaded guilty in federal court for accepting more than $78,000 in bribes in return for recommending the approval of unqualified loan applications to the bank, among other misconduct on April 22.

The United States filed a complaint to bar a San Francisco enrolled agent and tax return preparer from implementing, facilitating and promoting allegedly abusive tax shelters and tax avoidance schemes, the Justice Department announced on April 22.

Citizens Medical Center, a county-owned hospital in Victoria, Texas, has agreed to pay the United States $21,750,000 to settle allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by engaging in improper financial relationships with referring physicians, the Justice Department announced on April 21.

Four Portland, Oregon, residents were sentenced in the U.S. District Court in Portland for a multi-year stolen identity tax refund scheme to defraud the United States of more than $1 million in tax refunds on April 21, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Caroline D. Ciraolo of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and Acting U.S. Attorney Billy J. Williams of the District of Oregon.

Family Dermatology P.C. which owns and operates a dermatopathology laboratory in Georgia and a number of dermatology practices throughout the Eastern United States, has agreed to pay the United States $3,247,835 plus interest to settle allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by engaging in improper financial relationships with a number of its employed physicians, the Justice Department announced on April 21.

The federal court in the Western District of Tennessee has enjoined Stephanie Edmond and her business, the Tax Factory and the Tax Factory Enterprise Inc., from preparing improper federal income tax returns.

A Queens, New York, tax return preparer pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn on April 16, New York, to 38 counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false federal income tax returns and four counts of filing false personal income tax returns, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Caroline D. Ciraolo of the Justice Department’s Tax Division.

The ringleader of a stolen identity tax refund fraud scheme and former nightclub owner was sentenced in the U.S. District Court in Montgomery on April 15, Alabama, for stolen identity refund fraud related crimes, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Caroline D. Ciraolo of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney George L. Beck Jr. of the Middle District of Alabama.

The United States has filed a complaint seeking to permanently bar a West Palm Beach, Florida, area man and his business from preparing federal tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced on April 15.

A lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy pleaded guilty to bribery charges in federal court on April 15, admitting that he accepted cash, hotel expenses and the services of a prostitute in return for providing classified U.S. Navy ship schedules and other internal Navy information to an executive of a defense contracting firm.