A former Las Vegas certified public accountant who marketed his tax business specifically to clients in the adult entertainment industry has been sentenced to five years in federal prison for schemes that cost the IRS more than $3.5 million — and prosecutors say he kept defrauding the government even after pleading guilty to the first scheme. Michael J. Moore ran his operation under the name X Tax Pros, promising clients he could wipe out their tax debts and generate large refunds in exchange for upfront fees.
According to the Department of Justice, Moore operated two false tax return schemes over roughly a decade, filing returns loaded with fake business expenses totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars and false losses tied to corporate entities that were mostly defunct, dormant, or carrying on no real business. As reported by KLAS 8 News Now, Moore pleaded guilty to one count each of tax evasion, helping a client file a false tax return, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft, and clients were required to pay Moore's fees using the refund money the IRS sent them — even though, according to investigators, many clients did not actually incur the expenses Moore reported on their behalf.
A Second Fraud While Awaiting Sentencing
Rather than stop after his initial guilty plea, Moore ran a separate false-returns scheme between August and October 2025, using a former employee's name and personal identifying information without that person's permission or knowledge to file fraudulent returns. That secondary scheme cost the IRS an additional $250,000, per the Justice Department, and Moore pleaded guilty to those additional federal charges in March 2026 under case No. 2:25-cr-00225-JAD-NJK.
IRS Criminal Investigation's San Francisco Field Office investigated the case, and federal officials framed the sentence as a warning to other preparers. IRS-CI official David Lowe said the agency “will aggressively pursue people who exploit the tax system for personal gain,” adding that Moore's schemes “were designed to cheat the tax system while shifting the burden onto law-abiding taxpayers.” Lowe also said financial crimes carry serious consequences. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Tony Lopez for the District of Nevada and National Fraud Enforcement Division Tax Section Trial Attorney Patrick Burns, with the Department of Justice noting that the more recent prosecution also involved First Assistant U.S. Attorney Sigal Chattah and Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the National Fraud Enforcement Division.
A Long History With Federal Regulators
Moore's brush with federal oversight did not begin with this case. Back in 2009, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged Moore and his Las Vegas firm, Moore & Associates Chartered, with securities fraud for issuing improper audit reports for more than 300 public shell companies, allegedly relying on uneducated high school graduates to do the work. Moore settled that civil enforcement action without admitting or denying the SEC's allegations.
Former Clients Still Face Risk
The fallout from Moore's scheme does not necessarily end with his sentencing. Under 26 U.S.C. § 6501(c)(1), civil tax fraud carries no statute of limitations, which means the Internal Revenue Service can audit Moore's former clients indefinitely to recover back taxes, interest, and penalties of up to 40 percent for claims lacking economic substance. Clients remain personally responsible for fraudulent losses claimed on their returns, even though it was Moore who prepared and filed them.
The case adds to a lengthening list of federal tax-fraud prosecutions targeting Las Vegas-area preparers in 2026. Hoodline has previously reported that Las Vegas preparer Iris Hondermann received a 30-month sentence in August for a $5 million refund scheme run through Silver State Tax & Multiservices LLC, in which she and her son secretly diverted $1.1 million into personal accounts. In July, federal prosecutors indicted CashBack Tax Service owner Jadee Glover and two other preparers for allegedly inflating client refunds with fictitious business losses and false pandemic leave claims, while real estate agent and tax preparer Adonia Stiles was sentenced to prison the same month for her role in a $15 million COVID-19 employee retention credit scam that pulled $7 million from the Treasury. Earlier in the year, former cleaning company owner Deborah Meadows pleaded guilty to withholding $1.2 million in payroll taxes, and in 2024 Richard Jason Mountford was sentenced to 27 months for an identity-theft refund scheme that funded gold bars and luxury cars.
Moore's sentence brings a five-year prison term for conduct that, combined across both schemes, cost the IRS roughly $3.75 million. For his former clients, the financial reckoning may not be over — under federal law, the bill for Moore's fraud can still land on them.
