A Florida tax preparer has been sentenced to four and a half years in prison for fiing 745 returns in 19 states from 2015 to 2018. Damian Barrett of Homestead, Fla., filed the returns through his Florida-based tax preparation companies, Max Tax Experts and Winngate Tax Services.
Barrett drew 54 months in sentencing in a federal court in Portland, Ore., after being convicted on charges of mail fraud and money laundering by a jury in 2020.
He claimed nearly $900,000 in fraudulent tax refunds and received more than $234,000 with $130,000 of that coming from the Oregon Department of Revenue after he requested more than $322,000 in refunds from the state.
Barrett also omitted more than $21,000 in income on his 2016 federal return and did not file and individual return in 2017. He was ordered to pay $234,000 in restitution 11 states and more than $74,000 to the Internal Revenue Service.
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