Saul Valdez, a Vancouver business owner and unlicensed tax preparer, was sentenced to prison for nine months for tax fraud in the U.S. District Court on Feb. 10. Valdez targeted immigrants and filed returns with false deductions and expenses.
“This defendant built his business by obtaining inflated tax refunds for clients who had little understanding of the U.S. tax system,” U.S. Attorney Gorman stated in a U.S. Department of Justice news release. “Ultimately some of these clients were hit with back tax payments, fees, and penalties because this defendant intentionally filed false tax returns on their behalf.”
Valdez operated Conexion Latina and used TaxAct and TurboTax to prepare tax returns. Between 2016 and 2018, he falsified deductions and expenses, reducing customers’ tax obligations on their returns, the news release stated.
“Mr. Valdez abused credits designed to help low-income taxpayers, and his clients incurred over $23,000 in penalties along the way,” IRS Criminal Investigation special agent Adam Jobes stated in the news release.
Valdez admitted to his fraud resulting in $1,293,921 in tax loss, an estimate based on a sampling of 50 of some 2,000 tax returns he prepared between 2016 and 2018, the news release stated.
Valdez’s tax fraud was investigated by Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Criminal Investigations, and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristine Foerster, the news release stated.
In addition to his prison sentence, Valdez must pay $54,045 in restitution and serve four months of electronic home confinement, the news release stated.
