According to the United States Attorney Rachel Rollins, Boris Shadari, of Swampscott, was sentenced to 30 months in prison and ordered to pay nearly $500,000 in restitution for a tax scheme that targeted fellow members of the Greater Boston Congolese community on Tuesday.
According to a statement released by Rollins’ office, the fraudulent tax scheme was initiated in the year 2012, when Shadari and a co-conspirator named Christian Zynga pretended that Shadari was a tax professional serving the Congolese community in the Greater Boston area.
Up until the year 2017, Shadari and Zynga increased their clients’ federal income tax refunds by providing a tax professional with false information about their clients’ dependents, childcare expenses, business income, and losses.
This information was included in the tax information that was taken from their clients and given to the tax professional.
They then divided the proceeds of those refunds between the bank accounts they controlled and the accounts of their customers.
According to Rollins, after the tax year 2017 and continuing into 2018, Shadari prepared the clients’ tax returns on his own, including the false information to increase the total amount of the refund. On his own tax returns, he didn’t even bother to report the money he made from the scheme.
According to Rollins, when he found out that an investigation was being conducted into his actions, he instructed one of his clients to lie to investigators about the information contained in the tax returns that he had prepared for her.
He allegedly suggested that if she didn’t lie, she would owe the IRS thousands of dollars, and it would have an effect on her immigration status.
In connection with the scheme, the United States District Court Judge Allison D. Burroughs handed down a sentence of thirty months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release, and ordered Shadari to pay restitution for four hundred and ninety-six thousand and eighty-two dollars.
“In a scheme that was difficult to detect, Boris Shadari took advantage of dozens of hard-working members of his own community, betrayed their trust, and defrauded taxpayers in the process,” said Joseph R. Bonavolonta, the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Boston Division.
“All the while, he raked in almost half a million dollars for himself,” Bonavolonta added. “Also concerning is the fact that Mr Shadari tried to coerce one of his victims into lying to the investigators.
Even though he will be held accountable for his criminal behaviour as a result of the sentence handed down today, all of us need to make sure that we do our research before hiring a tax preparer.
In March, Shadari entered a guilty plea to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States of America, three counts of filing a false tax return, three counts of aiding or assisting in the filing of a false tax return, two counts of theft of government funds, five counts of aggravated identity theft, and one count of witness tampering. Shadari also admitted to tampering with a witness during the investigation.
Read more:-
- A Tax Return Preparer From Bridgeport Was Given a Sentence for Submitting Fraudulent Returns on Behalf of Her Customers.
- According to tax analysts, 80 per cent of the increased income collected by the IRS will come from businesses with annual revenues of less than $200,000
- In South Carolina, where early voting is taking place, Pompeo will be the featured speaker at a fundraiser
Zynga, his confederate, entered a guilty plea to a single count of conspiracy to defraud the United States of America in October 2021, and she is scheduled to be sentenced in August.
According to Rollins, “Mr Shadari not only defrauded the federal government, but he also took advantage of people in his own community.”
Many of the people in Mr Shadari’s community were hardworking immigrants who were not familiar with American tax laws. Justice has been served for members of the Congolese community in Greater Boston whom Mr Shadari preyed upon and exploited with today’s sentence.
On the website www.irs.gov, you can find contact information, in addition to general information on choosing a tax preparer and reporting concerns about tax preparers.
