A California tax preparer who had previously worked at the Franchise Tax Board was sentenced to 5 years in prison in 2019 for claiming bogus withholdings that fraudulently generated substantial tax refunds. Between 2012 and 2019, he submitted 222 false client tax returns claiming approximately $5,648,809 in fabricated income tax withholdings. More recently, the tax pro argued against the omission of a neuropsychologist’s testimony that a 1992 head injury affected his ability to judge right from wrong. The court upheld that evidence being omitted from the trial, along with the tax pro’s sister’s vague testimony that after the head injury he never returned to normal and his memory was worse. (U.S. v. Williams (June 6, 2021) U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, Case No. 2:19-cr-00280-PA-1)
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