Tax evasion, conspiring to defraud the United States, and impeding the IRS’s efforts to collect his own tax debt were all charges to which a professional tax preparer from Utah pleaded guilty today.
In according with court records, Orem resident Sergio Sosa owned and ran the tax return preparation company Sergio Centro Latino.
Sosa and his two adult children connived from 2004 to the present to cheat the United States by hiding Sosa’s assets and income from the IRS.
Sosa also failed to timely file his personal tax returns for the years 2003 through 2017 or pay the taxes he owed during these years.
Sosa impeded efforts by using nominees to open corporate bank accounts, rebranding his company and putting it in his children’s names, and telling the IRS lies after the IRS audited him and started trying to collect his then-pending tax liability of more than $750,000.
Sosa also instructed his daughter to use money he gave her to pay the mortgage on his own home. Overall, Sosa cost the IRS more than $1.1 million in lost tax revenue.
On September 19, Sosa is due to get his sentence. He could spend up to five years in jail for tax evasion, five years for conspiracy to defraud the United States, and three years for impeding the IRS.
In addition, he must pay reparations, serve a period of supervised release, and pay fines.
After taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other legal considerations, a federal district court judge will decide on any sentence.
The statement was made by U.S. Attorney Trina A. Higgins for the District of Utah and Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division.