Las Vegas tax preparer Iris Hondermann has been sentenced to 30 months in federal prison for conspiring to defraud the United States through a scheme that sought more than $5 million in fraudulent tax refunds. Hondermann owned and operated Silver State Tax & Multiservices LLC, and between 2017 and 2021 the business submitted returns padded with fabricated business profits and losses, bogus COVID-19 sick and family leave credits, and phony residential energy credits.
The sentencing was announced by the U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Nevada, which said the false claims spanned five tax years and sought to inflate refund amounts using pandemic-era credits. Investigators with the Internal Revenue Service say Hondermann and a co-conspirator also secretly diverted more than $1.1 million of the resulting refunds into bank accounts under their own control, without the knowledge or consent of the clients whose names appeared on the returns.
How the $5 Million Refund Scheme Worked
Silver State Tax & Multiservices operated at least five locations around the Las Vegas valley, including offices on East Sahara Avenue and East Charleston Boulevard, according to the Better Business Bureau. The bureau's business profile for the company dates back to 2017 and lists it as unaccredited.
Hondermann's son and co-defendant, Ivan Odiaga, worked alongside her at the business and pleaded guilty on March 2 to his own role in the scheme. Per the same Internal Revenue Service account, Odiaga admitted he filed approximately 279 tax returns using another preparer's unique identification number without authorization, despite having received IRS warning letters about the practice.
Legal Stakes and a Widening Nevada Crackdown
Conspiring to defraud the United States under 18 U.S.C. § 371 carries a statutory maximum of five years in federal prison, along with court-ordered restitution and supervised release, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Federal tax fraud cases referred for prosecution rarely end without a conviction — IRS Criminal Investigation referrals result in a conviction or guilty plea more than 92% of the time, per Brandon A. Keim Law.
The case itself was built by special agents from the IRS Criminal Investigation Phoenix Field Office, which oversees criminal tax and financial investigations across Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico. Federal prosecutors in Nevada have prioritized tax refund theft in recent years, a push tied in part to First Assistant U.S. Attorney Sigal Chattah.
Hondermann's sentencing follows the July sentencing of a Las Vegas real estate agent in a separate $15 million tax credit scheme, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Nevada. Hoodline covered that earlier case in its report on the $15M scheme.
What This Means for Hondermann's Former Clients
Regulatory compliance guidance notes that when a tax preparer builds a fraudulent return, the IRS still considers the individual taxpayer legally responsible for repaying any improper refund amount along with accrued penalties, according to Business Compliance Associates. That leaves an open question for Hondermann's former clients: how much they may ultimately owe, and whether any of the diverted funds will be recovered through restitution, remains unresolved.
