A South Florida tax preparer has been sentenced this week to two years for his role in seeking more than $2.3 million in Payroll Protection Program Funds. Leonel Rivero, 35 submitted more than 118 fraudulent PPP loan applications.
Rivero, who operated the Rivero Tax Group, and accomplices received about $975,582 in PPP loans, which he has agreed to forfeit. The conviction stemmed from wire fraud charges against the preparer to which he pled guilty.
Rivero falsified the applicant’s prior-year sole proprietorship income and expenses and submitted fraudulent IRS tax forms for each application.
Bob Scott has provided information to the tax and accounting community since 1991, first as technology editor of Accounting Today, and from 1997 through 2009 as editor of its sister publication, Accounting Technology. He is known throughout the industry for his depth of knowledge and for his high journalistic standards. Scott has made frequent appearances as a speaker, moderator and panelist and events serving tax and accounting professionals. He has a strong background in computer journalism as an editor with two former trade publications, Computer+Software News and MIS Week and spent several years with weekly and daily newspapers in Morris County New Jersey prior to that. A graduate of Indiana University with a degree in journalism, Bob is a native of Madison, Ind