A Milwaukee man who plead guilty to helping hundreds of clients prepare false tax returns, boosting the amount of money they would get in return, has been sentenced to 41 months in prison.
Rodney Smith, age 60, filed 1,338 tax returns between 2018 and 2021, according to court documents. His scheme led to $3.3 million being falsely refunded to his clients.
Smith has also been ordered to pay $216,643 in restitution and a $400 special assessment.
Between 2018 and 2021, Smith claimed to be a tax preparer and ran his own business called
Xpert Tax Services located at 1332 S. 6th St.
Smith “willfully assisted” clients in preparing fraudulent tax returns that maximized the refunds they received. He prepared fraudulent tax returns for his clients by providing false information about the clients’ dependents, wages, and income or losses from household help. This led to clients qualifying for refundable credits they were not supposed to receive.
In November 2020, investigators executed a search warrant at Smith’s business. He admitted that 60% to 70% of the income tax returns he prepared were false. Despite being contacted by special agents in 2020, Smith continued to file false returns in 2021.
“Mr. Smith willfully and repeatedly sought to defraud the IRS and caused injury to every individual and business who played by the rules and paid their fair share of taxes due to fund vital government operations and programs,” said
Gregory Haanstad, United States attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. “The sentence in this case reflects the fact that Mr. Smith’s fraud was relentless, and not even a prior conviction or the execution of a search warrant at his business was sufficient to deter him from seeking to line his pockets at the taxpayers’ expense."
