Federal Court Bars Florida Tax Return Preparers from Preparing Tax Returns and Orders Them to Disgorge Ill-Gotten Gains | WPN World People News

On April 16, a federal court in Orlando, Florida, ordered that Patrick Clarke disgorge $500,000, and Ruby Rodriguez disgorge $100,000, of the proceeds they received for the preparation of tax returns, the Justice Department announced on April. 16th. Clarke and Rodriguez agreed to the orders. On Nov. 13, 2017, the Court permanently barred Clarke, Rodriguez, Tax MD Inc., and V.I.P Tax Services Inc. from preparing federal tax returns for others. The civil injunction order, to which the defendants also agreed, was signed by Judge Carlos E. Mendoza of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

In April 2016, the United States filed its civil complaint against Clarke and Rodriguez seeking an injunction prohibiting them from acting as federal tax return preparers and seeking disgorgement of their gross receipts for the preparation of federal tax returns that reported false or fraudulent claims. According to the complaint, Clarke owned Tax MD Inc. and through it owned and operated tax return preparation franchises in Orlando, Tampa, West Palm Beach, and Hallandale, Florida. Also according to the complaint, Rodriguez managed one of Clarke’s stores in Orlando and owned V.I.P Tax Services Inc. As alleged, Clarke’s tax return preparers, including Rodriguez, fabricated business income and expenses to make fraudulent claims for the earned income tax credit and fabricated itemized deductions to generate larger refunds. The injunction entered in November stopped Clarke and Rodriguez from preparing tax returns for others, and the disgorgement order allows the government to collect proceeds they received from their tax preparation.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice