Photo Courtesy of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of New York
Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Breon Peace.
By Forum Staff
A borough resident has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for conspiring to defraud the United States, federal prosecutors announced Monday.
According to court documents and statements made in court, Richard Barker owned and operated a tax return preparation business under the names Tax Depot Inc., located in Brooklyn; and KPS Kampant, Parkinson, Sinclair & Co. Inc., located in Elmhurst. From approximately 2012 through 2019, Barker conspired with other individuals to submit false tax returns to the Internal Revenue Service on behalf of clients. These tax returns included Forms 1099-OID that falsely reported financial institutions, creditors and other entities had withheld and paid taxes to the IRS on behalf of the clients, when in reality no such taxes had been withheld or paid. As a result of these fictitious withholdings, the IRS paid the clients refunds they were not entitled to receive. Barker also filed false returns for himself based on the same 1099-OID scheme and recruited at least one other individual to do the same. In total, Barker caused a tax loss to the IRS of more than $460,000.
Photo Courtesy of Google
Records show that one of Barker’s tax return preparation businesses—KPS Kampant, Parkinson, Sinclair & Co. Inc.—was located on Corona Avenue in Elmhurst.
In addition to the term of imprisonment, U.S. District Judge Eric Komitee ordered Barker to serve two years of supervised release and to pay approximately $464,252 in restitution to the IRS.
Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Breon Peace for the Eastern District of New York made the announcement.
IRS-Criminal Investigation and the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration investigated the case.
