A Florida man has entered a guilty plea to conspiracy to defraud the United States stemming from the operation of a fraudulent tax return preparation business. According to an announcement from the Justice Department's Tax Division and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida, Diandre Mentor of Miami was involved with a company that falsified client tax returns to inflate refunds between January 2017 and 2019.
Mentor, alongside his accomplices, ran Neighborhood Advance Tax (NAT), an operation that spread across a dozen offices throughout Florida. Court documents referenced by the Department of Justice stated that they prepared false returns and conducted training sessions to teach others to do the same. The scheme extended into a second business started by Mentor in 2020 named Smart Tax & Finance, which burgeoned into 12 franchise locations, continuing the practice of preparing false tax returns for clients.
The cumulative effect of these fraudulent actions was significant, causing a tax loss to the IRS totaling more than $3 million. Before Mentor's guilty plea, accomplices Abryle Y De La Cruz, Emmanual Almonor, Adon Hemley, and Isaiah Hayes also pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges and aiding the preparation of false tax returns. Mentor's sentencing has yet to be scheduled. Still, he faces a possible maximum sentence of five years in prison, with additional supervised release, restitution, and fines to be decided by a federal district court judge.
While Mentor awaits sentencing, two other co-conspirators, Franklin Carter Jr. and Jonathan Carrillo, are slated for a trial beginning on June 2. Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Karen E. Kelly and U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe were the officials who announced the guilty plea. IRS Criminal Investigation is investigating the case against Mentor and his associates. It is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Michael L. Jones of the Tax Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Megan Testerman for the Middle District of Florida.
