A Worcester-based tax cheat is headed to the slammer after a federal court smackdown. Kwasi Kwarteng, a 51-year-old tax preparer, was handed a one-year-plus-one-day prison sentence, followed by a year of supervised release, for scheming to defraud the IRS with false tax returns. The Department of Justice laid out the case against Kwarteng, revealing that he had pled guilty to 13 counts of aiding and assisting in the filing of false tax returns last April.
Going by the moniker KK Tax Service, Kwarteng tossed the rule book and, not registered with the IRS, he proceeded to pedals more than 1,195 tax returns over four years. Clients were charged about $150 each while he fabricated deductions — ranging from medical expenses to charitable donations — resulting in many beneficiaries getting refunds they didn't deserve. According to court documents, Kwarteng's handiwork caused the IRS to lose over half a million dollars.
U.S. District Judge Margaret R. Guzman didn't go easy on Kwarteng; besides the prison time, he's on the hook to pay a hefty $346,186 in restitution to the IRS and an additional $1,300 special assessment fee. To put a cork in any future tax-preparation shenanigans, he's also been hit with a permanent injunction that bars him for life from preparing or assisting in the filing of federal tax returns for others.
Announced by Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy and Harry Chavis, Jr., Special Agent in Charge of the IRS's Criminal Investigation in Boston, this case put a spotlight on the consequences of toying with Uncle Sam's ledgers. Assistant U.S. Attorney Victor A. Wild of the Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit, who prosecuted the case, made sure Kwarteng's falsifications caught up with him.
