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.
