SYRACUSE, NEW YORK – Donald Grant, 40, of Binghamton, New York, was sentenced today to serve fifteen (15) months in prison for preparing a false tax return and attempting to interfere with the administration of Internal Revenue Laws.
The announcement was made by United States Attorney Richard S. Hartunian and Shantelle P. Kitchen, Special Agent in Charge of IRS-Criminal Investigation’s New York Field Office.
U.S. District Judge David N. Hurd also sentenced Grant to a one (1) year term of supervised release, to begin after his release from prison, and also ordered him to pay $107,045 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service.
On November 4, 2016, Grant pled guilty to one count of preparing a false tax return and one count of attempting to interfere with the administration of Internal Revenue Laws. As part of his plea, Grant admitted that over the course of four years, he prepared twenty-seven (27) tax returns that contained false information, causing taxpayers to receive more than $100,000 in refunds they were not entitled to. Grant also admitted that he interfered with the IRS-Criminal Investigation’s inquiry into the returns he prepared and filed by providing a client with a counterfeit profit and loss statement, encouraging clients to provide false information to investigators, and providing false information, himself, when interviewed by an IRS-Criminal Investigation Special Agent.
This case was investigated by the New York Field Office (Syracuse) of the IRS-Criminal Investigation, and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Levine.