A former Whitman, Massachusetts, police sergeant was sentenced
to 48 months in prison for preparing false income tax returns for clients of
his tax preparation business, obstructing the internal revenue laws, and
misappropriating funds from the accounts of disabled veterans while he was a
fiduciary appointed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), announced
Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Department
of Justice’s Tax Division and Acting U.S. Attorney William D. Weinreb for the
District of Massachusetts.
According to documents filed with the Court, from 2007 to 2012,
Glenn P. Pearson, 61, was appointed a VA fiduciary for eight disabled veterans
of the U.S. armed forces. A veteran, who has been awarded VA benefits but is
unable to manage his or her funds due to injury, disease, mental incompetence
or infirmities of advanced age, can have a fiduciary appointed by the VA to
receive funds on the veteran’s behalf and to manage those funds for the benefit
of the veteran. Pearson used his position as a fiduciary to embezzle more
than $250,000 in VA-issued benefit money from the accounts of several
veterans.
Moreover, beginning in 2012, Pearson operated FTS Tax Services,
a tax preparation business through which he prepared false tax returns for
clients for a fee. From 2012 through 2015, Pearson prepared numerous tax
returns that included false credits and fictitious deductions in an effort to
obtain bigger refunds for his clients than they were entitled to receive.
When Pearson’s clients were audited by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS),
Pearson took steps to obstruct the IRS—including making false statements to the
IRS and preparing false documents for his clients to submit to the IRS during
the audits. Pearson also falsely underreported his own income on his
personal federal income tax returns. Pearson admitted to causing a total
tax loss of more than $1.5 million.
In addition to the term of prison imposed, Chief United States
District Judge Patti B. Saris ordered Pearson to serve three years of
supervised release and to pay restitution to the VA in the amount of $252,992
and restitution to the IRS in the amount of $826,865. Pearson pleaded
guilty in May to wire fraud, misappropriation by a federal fiduciary,
preparation of fraudulent tax returns and obstructing the internal revenue
laws.
Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Goldberg and Acting
U.S. Attorney Weinreb thanked special agents of IRS Criminal Investigation, FBI
and VA–OIG, who conducted the investigation, and Assistant U.S. Attorney
Vassili Thomadakis and Assistant Chief Karen Kelly of the Tax Division, who
prosecuted the case.
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