Two Florida men pleaded guilty last week just before jury selection began for their June 2 trial.
The two pleaded before Magistrate Judge David Baker to tax crimes related to a scheme to prepare false tax returns for clients.
Specifically, Franklin Carter Jr., of Sanford, pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the United States and failing to file tax returns, and Jonathan Carrillo, of St. Cloud, pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the United States and assisting in the preparation of false tax returns.
The plea must be accepted by a U.S. district court judge.
According to court documents and statements made in court, from 2016 to 2020, Carter and Carrillo owned and operated Neighbourhood Advance Tax, a return preparation business with a dozen offices throughout Florida.
Carter, Carrillo and their co-conspirators fraudulently inflated client tax refunds by fabricating deductions on their returns. They also held periodic training sessions at which they taught other NAT employees how to prepare fraudulent tax returns.
In 2021, Carter, Carrillo and the co-conspirators started another tax return preparation business. The new business, Taxmates, operated out of the same offices that NAT had previously used.
As with NAT, Carter, Carrillo, and the others used Taxmates to prepare false tax returns for clients. Many of those returns included false deductions. As before, Carter, Carrillo and their co-conspirators also taught franchise owners and employees how to prepare false returns for clients.
Additionally, Carter failed to file personal tax returns for 2019 through 2021, despite being legally required to do so.
In total, both men caused the IRS a tax loss exceeding $12 million.
Several of their co-conspirators have pleaded guilty. Diandre Mentor, Abryle de la Cruz and Emmanuel Almonor pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the United States as part of the same scheme.
Adon Hemley pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the United States and helping others file false returns. Isaiah Hayes pleaded guilty to assisting others in filing false tax returns.
Carter and Carrillo will be sentenced at a later date. Both face a maximum sentence of five years in prison for the conspiracy charge.
Carter faces a maximum sentence of one year in prison for each failure to file a tax return charge, and Carillo faces a maximum sentence of three years in prison for each charge of assisting in the preparation of a false tax return.
Both men also face a period of supervised release, as well as restitution and monetary penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
