Audrey Strauss, the United States Lawyer for the Southern District of New York, introduced currently that CARLOS DE LA TORRE pled guilty prior to United States District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald to a person rely of mail fraud and two counts of submitting bogus cash flow tax returns in relationship with a a long time-long scheme to steal from the consumers of his tax preparation enterprise and defraud the Internal Revenue Services (“IRS”) and New York Condition Division of Taxation and Finance (“NYSDTF”).
U.S. Legal professional Audrey Strauss reported: “As he admitted now, Carlos De La Torre defrauded his tax planning shoppers by converting to his very own use money the purchasers experienced been advised they owed the IRS and New York Point out. As he further more admitted, De La Torre defrauded the IRS and the Condition by seeking refunds for overpayments of his taxes that have been in fact the resources he stole from his clientele, and by failing to report individuals stolen cash as earnings. Now Carlos De La Torre awaits sentencing for his crimes.”
In accordance to the allegations in the Grievance, Info, and statements produced in court docket:
DE LA TORRE is a tax preparer and the sole proprietor of a bookkeeping and tax preparing company in New York, New York. From at least in or about 2014, by way of at minimum in or about 2020, DE LA TORRE represented certain tiny companies primarily based in New York Metropolis and their owners (the “Victims”) in relationship with the preparation and filing of their particular and business federal and state tax returns. Throughout that time period, DE LA TORRE informed the Victims how substantially they allegedly owed in condition and federal personal and small business taxes, and the Victims gave DE LA TORRE checks in these quantities.
Rather of distributing the Victims’ checks as payments to be applied toward the Victims’ federal and condition tax liabilities, DE LA TORRE fraudulently altered the checks and mailed them to the IRS and the NYSDTF as believed tax payments to be credited against his own private tax liabilities. People payments tremendously exceeded DE LA TORRE’s individual tax liabilities each individual year. At the conclusion of each and every tax period of time, DE LA TORRE fraudulently sought and obtained refunds from the IRS and the NYSDTF for the full volume of the altered checks he submitted to each and every company, much less any sum DE LA TORRE essentially owed in taxes. Refunds from the IRS and the NYSDTF were being wired by the U.S. Treasury and New York Point out, respectively, directly into DE LA TORRE’s private bank account. In overall, DE LA TORRE stole additional than $466,000 from the Victims by way of this scheme.
DE LA TORRE also submitted false tax returns with the IRS and NYSDTF in relationship with this scheme, by failing to report on his tax returns the cash he stole from the Victims. Had DE LA TORRE documented that cash flow, as he was needed to do, his full tax legal responsibility each and every yr would have been a lot better than it was, and he would not have been entitled to the refunds that he claimed. As a result, DE LA TORRE defrauded the IRS and NYSDTF of a complete of at the very least $91,663 (which includes desire).
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DE LA TORRE, 79, of Little Neck, New York, pled responsible to one depend of mail fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Part 1341, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 decades in jail, and to two counts of subscribing to fake individual tax returns, in violation of Title 26, United States Code, Portion 7206(1), every of which carries a optimum sentence of three yrs in jail. The utmost probable sentences in this scenario are approved by Congress and are supplied below for informational reasons only, as any sentencing of the defendant would be determined by the choose. DE LA TORRE is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Buchwald on December 21, 2021.
Ms. Strauss praised the remarkable investigative function of IRS Prison Investigation and NYSDTF.
The prosecution of this scenario is becoming dealt with by the Office’s General Crimes Device. Assistant United States Lawyer Sarah L. Kushner is in demand of the prosecution.