A Westminster-based tax preparer pleaded guilty Monday to participating in schemes to defraud the federal government out of about $3.8 million.
Anton Nguyen, 54, of Fountain Valley, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
From 2012 to June 2019, Nguyen operated a tax preparation company called Century Tax & Travel. During that period, Nguyen and his co-conspirators filed hundreds of tax returns using personal identifying information belonging to other individuals without their permission to generate fraudulent tax refund payments from the federal government, totaling at least $418,559 in false claims, according to Nguyen’s plea agreement.
One of his co-conspirators, John Tran of Fountain Valley, was an Orange County Social Services Agency case worker from July 1994 to October 2018. Tran aided Nguyen by stealing Social Security numbers and other personal identifying information from his clients – many of which had recently immigrated to the United States.
The stolen information was used by Tran, Nguyen and other co-conspirators to fraudulently obtain money from the federal government, the state of California, Orange County and other financial institutions, according to the indictment.
Nguyen used the stolen identities that Tran provided to create fraudulent Forms 1099-MISC that falsely showed payments made to the identity theft victims by companies, including those controlled by Tran and other accomplices. Forms 1099-MISC are used to report miscellaneous payments such as for rent and medical and health care payments.
Nguyen and Tran would then prepare and file IRS Forms 1040 – used by taxpayers to file an annual income tax return – using the identity theft victims’ personal identifying information. On those forms, the payments from the fraudulent Forms 1099 were reported as income to the identity theft victims. By reporting the income, the individuals appeared…
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