Mendoza, who was found to have caused a $1.2 million-tax loss, pleaded guilty in  February to two counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation and presentation of false income tax returns.

Beginning about 2013, Mendoza ran her tax preparation businesses under the names, "Taxes & More" and "Taxes y Mas." She used false and inflated deductions and credits on clients’ tax returns. She also utilized their personal ID information to obtain a larger refund on her own tax returns.

Besides inflating client refund requests, she stole the excess amount of the returns, putting $500,000 in refund payments into her own accounts from 2013 through 2017. While on pre-trial release in March, she was arrested while in possession of a stolen passport, drivers licenses, and credit cards in the name of other individuals, along with forged copies of checks.

Bob Scott

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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