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Two Alabama Preparers Sentenced

Department of Justice logoTwo Alabama preparers have been sentenced to prison in a case that has already seen three other employees of the same firm given sentences. James E. Moss was sentenced to 160 months in prison and Avada L. Jenkins to 41 months for their role in preparing false returns at Moss's Montgomery, Ala.-based Flash Tax business.

Moss and Jenkins have been order to pay $120,000 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Services. U.S. District Court Judge Mark E. Fuller concluded the scheme cost the IRS more than $7 million in lost taxes. The three other employees involved were Chiquita Broadnax and Lutoyua Thompson, each sentenced to 18 months in prison, and Melinda Lambert, sentenced to six months in prison and six months home confinement.

Lambert and Thompson admitted Moss trained them to prepare returns to gain clients higher refunds by inflating or deflating some entries and by entering fictitious numbers. Thompson was employed at Flash Tax from December 2003 through June 2005 and prepared about 600 returns; Lambert from December 2004 through January 2007 and prepared about 900 returns. Broadnax worked there from December 2004 through January 2007 and prepared at least 900 returns,

Besides providing training sessions about how to manipulate numbers, Moss was accused of preparing and filing returns without seeking any documentation from taxpayers of informing them of his actions.

There were several preparers and former clients who testified at trial. Lambert further testified that Moss held the training sessions in his living room and that the employees would sip margaritas while Moss displayed tax forms on a flat screen television. Another former preparer, Yunko Babies, testified that Moss told him to "play with the numbers" to get better refunds. And at trial, Felicia Boyd, Moss's former sister-in-law, said Moss had prepared a return showing her hairstyling business had lost money but that she did not operate such a business or lose the amount of money listed as a business loss on her return.

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