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Ex-Teaneck Tax Preparer Gets 2½ Years In Federal Pen For Conning IRS, Helping 14 Others

A judge in Newark on Thursday sentenced a former Teaneck tax preparer to 2½ years in federal prison for helping himself and 14 clients cheat on their taxes.

Martin Luther King U.S. District Courthouse in Newark

Martin Luther King U.S. District Courthouse in Newark

Photo Credit: COURTESY: justice.gov

Sixto Rodriguez, 55, who'd moved to Kissimmee, FL, must serve just about all of the sentence. There's no parole in the federal prison system.

He was convicted earlier this year by U.S. District Judge Kevin McNulty of dozens of counts of filing the bogus returns following a one-week bench trial in federal court in Newark.

At the Teaneck business he named "1-2-3 Taxes," Rodriguez "inflated education credits, charitable donations, unreimbursed business expenses and rental losses that he knew his clients had not actually incurred," U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said.

In turn, the clients got an average of more than $4,000 per refund than they were entitled to, Carpenito said.

"Rodriguez also failed to report more than $230,000 in net profits he made from his business from 2007 through 2009 and personally avoided paying more than $89,000 in taxes as a result," the U.S. attorney said.

Carpenito credited special agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation with the probe leading to the verdict and sentencing, secured by Senior Litigation Counsel Daniel V. Shapiro of his Economic Crimes Unit in Newark and Assistant U.S. Attorney David M. Eskew, deputy chief of Carpenito's Criminal Division.In addition to the prison term, McNulty sentenced Rodriguez to one year of supervised release.

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