PHOENIX — Oscar Hernandez was sentenced to 18 months in prison and ordered to pay $121,548 in restitution to the United States after he confessed to filing at least 44 fraudulent tax returns between 2010 and 2013.
Hernandez, who worked as a tax preparer in Phoenix for nearly 25 years, owned and operated his own tax preparation business called R Robin Tax Services, said a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Arizona District.
Hernandez admitted that he falsified returns for his clients by claiming head of household filing status, adding false dependents, and claiming false exemptions and credits. All those false claims had the effect of reducing the amount of taxes his clients owed and increasing the amount of their tax refunds.
Last week, Elias Bermudez, another long-time Phoenix tax preparer, was sentenced to 18 months in prison and ordered to pay $131,651 in restitution to the United States for preparing false tax returns. He was employing some of the same methods as Hernandez.
The investigation in the Hernandez case was conducted by the Criminal Investigation division of the IRS Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jillian Besancon and Bridget Minder served as the prosecutors