Thursday, June 30, 2022

A Utah professional tax preparer pleaded guilty today to tax evasion, conspiring to defraud the United States and obstructing the IRS’s efforts to collect his personal tax debt.

According to court documents, Sergio Sosa, of Orem, owned and operated Sergio Centro Latino, a tax return preparation business. From 2004 to the  present, Sosa conspired with his two adult children to defraud the United States by concealing Sosa’s assets and income from the IRS. From 2003 through 2017, Sosa also did not timely file his own tax returns or pay the taxes he owed for these years. After the IRS audited Sosa and began efforts to collect his then pending tax debt of more than $750,000, he obstructed those efforts by using nominees to open corporate bank accounts, renaming his business and placing it in the names of his children, and making false statements to the IRS. Sosa also directed his daughter to make mortgage payments on his personal residence using funds he provided to her. In total, Sosa caused a tax loss to the IRS exceeding $1.1 million.

Sosa is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 19 and faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison for tax evasion, five years in prison for conspiring to defraud the United States and three years in prison for obstructing the IRS. He also faces a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Trina A. Higgins for the District of Utah made the announcement.

IRS-Criminal Investigation is investigating the case.

Trial Attorney Ahmed Almudallal of the Tax Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Ruth Hackford-Peer for the District of Utah are prosecuting the case.