Three Mississippi tax preparers have been sentenced to prison, part of a group of five preparers guilty of tax return fraud. The preparers caused a tax loss of more than $3.5 million.Adam Earnest was sentenced to 100 months in prison, James Klish to 50 months in and John Wells to 15 months in prison. Each will also serve three years of supervised release and pay restitution to the United States, the amount to be determined later.
The three, who worked at the Sunbelt Tax Service in Jackson, Miss., were found guilty oof conspiring to defraud the United States by preparing false tax returns. Earnest and Randell were also convicted of preparing such returns.
Two other conspirators, Christopher Rendell and Jonathan Barefoot, who pleaded guilty to preparing and filing fast tax returns, will be sentenced later.
The preparers inflated clients’ claimed tax returns by reporting false education credits, itemized deductions and business profits or losses. They prepared thousands of fraudulent returns.
