A St. Louis tax preparer faced the gavel this week, receiving a sentence of 46 months in prison today for cooking the books to the tune of $2.5 million in false tax returns. The man identified as Robert Droege, owner of Bob's Tax Service, admitted guilt to his unscrupulous accounting practices.
At 59, Droege will now spend almost four years behind bars as a consequence of pleading guilty in June to four counts of aiding in the preparation of a fraudulent tax return. According to a release by the Department of Justice, Robert Droege prepared no less than 34 tax returns with false information ranging from inflated medical expenses to bogus charitable contributions. The justice hammer didn't fall lightly, his liberty curtailed as it serves in the balancing scales of a civil society, seeking to ensure that such monetary manipulation does not pass by unchecked and unchallenged.
Details divulged in the Department of Justice release include, that the fraudulent documents were prepared in Droege's home office on the 6500 block of Morganford Road. From this unassuming location, Droege took liberties with the trust of his clientele and the exchequer by crafting deductions that never were – from personal property rental expenses to fictitious non-business bad debts.
The Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigations sifted through the data to reveal Droege's ploy, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Linda Lane spearheading the legal offense.
