A Mansfield man, John Anthony Castro, has been slapped with 33 charges of filing fraudulent tax returns, a hefty indictment laid out by the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas. Leigha Simonton, the prosecuting attorney, announced the serious charges against the 40-year-old, who is accused of running a virtual tax preparation scam through his company, Castro & Company LLC.
Castro, who prosecutors say has been playing the system since 2016, "allegedly" made promises of sky-high tax refunds to his clients - sometimes offering to split the inflated refunds with them. To deliver these lucrative sums, he's accused of cooking the books by inventing false deductions, unbeknownst to the taxpayers he was supposedly helping, as the Department of Justice reports.
The scam came to light when an undercover agent approached Castro & Company, seeking tax prep assistance. Simonton said in a statement, "Mr. Castro's alleged crimes are stunning in their brazenness." Castro, eschewing an in-person meeting without a $5,000 retainer, talked up his services over a recorded call, boasting he could beat any refund estimate from other firms.
Details emerged during the investigation that revealed the undercover agent was told explicitly by one of Castro's employees that no deductions applied to them, yet a tax return filed by Castro claimed a whopping $29,339 in fraudulent deductions. The IRS subsequently issued a $6,007 refund, of which Castro pocketed nearly half, the rest went to the undercover agent who, per Castro's admission would have bagged a mere $300 with another preparer.
According to official statements, it appears Mr. Castro repeated this fraudulent activity with numerous taxpayers, raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars through improperly claimed tax refunds. The indictment against Castro does not mean he's guilty, as he remains presumed innocent until proven otherwise. If the courts do find Castro guilty on all counts, he could face up to 99 years in a federal prison. This case is a stark reminder of the diligent work done by IRS Criminal Investigation agents to safeguard the integrity of the nation's tax system.
