Miami-Dade Tax Preparers Charged In IRS Fraud

MIAMI, FL — Five Miami-Dade tax preparers were charged Friday with filing false tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service. If convicted, the offenses add up to maximum sentences of eight years in prison. The charges were announced by U.S. Attorney Benjamin G. Greenberg of Miami.

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Jamal Dyer, Jonathan Charles Edwards, Daniel Alvaro Murias, Jorge Alfonso Osorio Rodriguez, and Tramaine Das Sealy, were each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States and five counts of preparing false tax returns.

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"The defendants and their co-conspirators unlawfully enriched themselves by charging clients tax preparation fees to prepare materially false tax returns," federal prosecutors said. "The defendants knowingly submitted false statements and claims on their clients' tax returns, including false claims to the Education Credit, the American Opportunity Credit, the Residential Energy Credit, and false Schedules C, resulting in a greater tax refund being paid from the IRS to their clients or a lesser tax liability owed by their clients to the IRS."

Prosecutors said that the five prepared tax returns at The Tax Firm Miami, which has multiple addresses in Miami-Dade County.

Greenberg was joined by Special Agent in Charge Michael J. De Palma of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation in announcing the charges.

"The defendants collected fees from clients for each tax return prepared and deposited the fees into individual bank accounts that they each controlled," prosecutors explained. "According to allegations made in court, the defendants caused approximately $15 million in tax loss over the three charged years."

Photo by Paul Scicchitano