HAMMOND — This is an official press release from the U.S. Department of Justice (USAO - Indiana, Northern), published as received.
HAMMOND- Daniel P. Bewley, 34, a tax return preparer from of Noblesville, Indiana, was sentenced before District Court Judge James T. Moody on his plea to a wire fraud scheme that spanned from 2011 to April 2014 involving his submission of fraudulent customer tax returns to the IRS. The defendant also pled guilty to one count of filing his own fraudulent federal tax return, announced U.S. Attorney Thomas L. Kirsch II.
Bewley received a sentence of 33 in prison followed by 3 years of supervised release. The court further ordered Bewley to pay $331,493 in restitution to the IRS.
As outlined in the Indictment, Bewley presented his clients with a paper copy of the tax return he claimed would be electronically filed on their behalf with the IRS. The paper copies provided to clients, however, did not match the returns actually filed with the IRS. In what has come to be known as a “hijacked return” scheme, Bewley inflated deductions on the returns to create a larger refund. Clients received the refund the paper return indicated they could expect while defendant pocketed the rest.
The IRS encourages people who believe they may have been the victim of a fraudulent return preparer to contact the IRS Taxpayer Advocate Service https://taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov/get-help/return-preparer-fraud .
This case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Diane Berkowitz.
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