"

Estimated reading time: 1 minute, 44 seconds

Three Minnesota Preparers Sentenced

dojThree tax preparers, who stole identities, filed bogus returns and looted clients' debit cards have been sentenced to prison. The three drew the prison sentences last month for their conviction on charges related to running a fraudulent tax business with multiple storefronts in the Minneapolis, Minn., area. They were part of a group said to have cost the government between $1.5 million and $3.5 million in lost taxes.

Ishmael Kosh, 39, of Philadelphia, Pa., and Amadou Sangaray, 36, of New York, N.Y, were convicted following a two-week jury trial in September. Kosh was convicted of one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and eight counts of aiding and assisting in the filing of false tax returns. Sangaray was convicted of one count of conspiracy, four counts of aggravated identity theft and eight counts of aiding and assisting in the filing of false tax returns.

Francis Saygbay, 43, of Minneapolis, who failed to appear for trial, later pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy, one count of aggravated identity theft, and two counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false tax returns.

Kosh was sentenced to 52 months in prison; Sangaray, 50 months; and Saygbay, 40 months. Kosh and Saygbay were ordered to serve three years of supervised release each and Sangaray, two years of supervised release, after they complete their terms.

Along with Chatonda Khofi, 50, of St. Paul, Minn., the three established a storefront for Primetime Tax Services in the Minneapolis area. A fifth individual, David Mwangi, 47, of Arlington, Texas, joined them in preparing more than 2,000 bogus individual tax returns for tax years 2006, 2007 and 2008. They also prepared 1,700 fraudulent Minnesota returns for the same years.

Mwangi pleaded guilty In November 2014 to one count of conspiracy to defraud and Khofi pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. They are awaiting sentencing. A sixth individual,  Stephanie Robinson, 33, of Minneapolis, pleaded guilty in August 2013 to one count of filing a false tax return in her own name and one count of aiding and assisting in the filing of a false tax return for another individual.

Read 4757 times
Rate this item
(0 votes)

Visit other PMG Sites:

Template Settings

Color

For each color, the params below will give default values
Tomato Green Blue Cyan Dark_Red Dark_Blue

Body

Background Color
Text Color

Header

Background Color

Footer

Select menu
Google Font
Body Font-size
Body Font-family
Direction
PMG360 is committed to protecting the privacy of the personal data we collect from our subscribers/agents/customers/exhibitors and sponsors. On May 25th, the European's GDPR policy will be enforced. Nothing is changing about your current settings or how your information is processed, however, we have made a few changes. We have updated our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy to make it easier for you to understand what information we collect, how and why we collect it.