Justice Department Shuts Down Brooklyn Tax Return Preparation Business

Recently, the U.S. Justice Department (“DOJ”) successfully secured injunctions from U.S Federal District Court for the Eastern District of New York barring Keith Sang, Kashana Sang, Tareek Lewis, Kimberly Brown and their business K&L Accounting Inc. from preparing tax returns.

K&L Accounting Inc. of Brooklyn, New York

The Tax Division of the DOJ announced that on February 26, 2022, a federal court in the Eastern District of New York issued a preliminary injunction against four Brooklyn tax return preparers and their business.

The civil complaint filed in the case seeks to permanently bar Keith Sang, Kashana Sang, Tareek Lewis, Kimberly Brown and their business K&L Accounting Inc. from preparing tax returns. The preliminary injunction bars the defendants from any involvement in the preparation of federal tax returns during the pendency of this case. Keith Sang, Kashana Sang, Lewis and the business made no objection to the injunction. Brown opposed it.

The complaint alleges that the defendants’ tax return preparation schemes include preparation of individual income tax returns that (1) contain false or exaggerated itemized deductions (for example, unreimbursed employee expenses and charitable donations), (2) false filing statuses, such as improper “head of household” elections, (3) fraudulent and/or fictitious business income and/or expenses, (4) returns that falsify customer’s self-employment income to bring the customer into the “sweet spot” for the maximum available earned income tax credit, and (5) false losses on forms that report supplemental income or loss. The complaint alleges that, each year, K&L is responsible for preparing over 2,000 tax returns for customers, and that Keith Sang, whose electronic tax filing privileges were revoked years ago, has taken numerous steps to disguise his involvement with the tax return preparation, while he continues to prepare returns and supervise others working at K&L.

In granting the preliminary injunction, the court found that defendants engaged in concerted and conscious steps to evade IRS enforcement; that they, acting as a unit, repeatedly filed tax returns understating taxpayer liabilities since at least 2016; and that their past efforts demonstrated that they would continue hampering IRS enforcement unless prohibited from acting as federal tax return preparers during the litigation.

Actions by DOJ help support IRS’ campaigns to fight refund fraud and identity theft. 

“Identity theft is a pervasive crime and stopping it remains a top priority of the IRS,” said IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig. “The IRS, with the help of our Security Summit partners, continues to make progress in this area, but we need to continue our significant efforts to protect taxpayers and assist those who have been a victim of identity theft. We are fighting this problem with enhanced systems, smarter technology and the efforts of our dedicated workforce, including Criminal Investigation. We will retain our relentless, vigorous pursuit of those who prey upon others in this arena”.

The Office of the Chief of IRS Criminal Investigation (“CI”) has previously stated that “Millions of taxpayers put their trust in tax professionals to prepare accurate and lawful returns. Unfortunately, a few bad apples take advantage of that trust for their own greed and profit. CI’s special agents are highly skilled at unraveling fraudulent schemes. With our partners in other agencies and the private sector, we are dismantling these crooked enterprises and enforcing our tax laws.”

What Should You Do?

Whether you are a victim of identity theft or the perpetrator of identity theft, it is important that you seek legal counsel as soon as possible to preserve your rights and/or mitigate your losses.  The tax attorneys of the Law Offices Of Jeffrey B. Kahn, P.C. located in Orange County (Irvine), San Francisco Bay Area (including San Jose and Walnut Creek) and elsewhere in California know exactly what to say and how to handle issues with the IRS as well as State Tax Agencies.  Our experience and expertise not only levels the playing field but also puts you in the driver’s seat as we take full control of resolving your tax problems. Also, if you are involved in cannabis, check out what our cannabis tax attorney can do for you.  Additionally, if you are involved in crypto currency, check out what a bitcoin tax attorney can do for you.Top of Form