Mobile tax preparer pleads guilty to submitting $400,000 worth of fraudulent returns

By Brendan Kirby

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    MOBILE, Alabama (WALA) — A tax preparer pleaded guilty to fraud Tuesday, admitting that he submitted more than two dozen returns that contained inaccurate information leading to hundreds of thousands of dollars in undeserved refunds.

Carlos Lee Anderson, 59, pleaded guilty to a single count of aiding and abetting false tax returns that cost the government more than $400,000 in illegal refunds. Federal prosecutors have agreed to recommend sentencing leniency and ask the judge to dismiss the other counts. The maximum penalty is three years in prison and a $100,000 fine.

According to Anderson’s written plea agreement, he worked for 15 years for Moffett Road Tax Service, which his sister owned.

Anderson admitted that he fraudulently inflated customers’ refunds. On the count he pleaded guilty to, he submitted a fraudulent return in 2000 for tax year 2019. It had claimed business losses even though the client did not own any businesses and claimed deductions for expenses that the client did not incur.

Anderson admitted that he included similarly fraudulent information on the other 25 returns named in the indictment. They included inflated medical and dental expenses, gifts to charity, job expenses and other deductions, according to the plea document.

The plea agreement indicates that Anderson told clients he was a former IRS auditor who was familiar with loopholes and could secure higher refunds.

U.S. District Judge Kristi DuBose set sentencing for December.

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