Date: March 19, 2025
Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov
TACOMA — A high-volume tax preparer in Vancouver, Washington was indicted last week for sixteen counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false and fraudulent returns, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Teal Luthy Miller. Keith Altamirano operated Integrity Investments, LLC, doing business as Servicios Latinos. Between 2017 and 2021, Altamirano prepared at least 12,000 tax returns. The grand jury alleges that his false entries on customer tax returns cost the U.S. Treasury more than $5 million in tax loss.
Altamirano was arrested late yesterday and will make his initial appearance on the indictment today at 1:00 in Tacoma.
According to the indictment, Altamirano falsified clients’ income tax submissions by listing fake medical expenses, and charitable donations for deductions, listing fake cars for depreciation and expense deductions, and by listing fabricated and inflated business expenses. Altamirano concealed his fraud by using “White Out” and omitting his name on his clients’ filed returns.
In an unrelated matter, Altamirano was charged last month in Clark County Superior Court, with attempted murder for intentionally crashing into the motorcycle that his son was riding. Altamirano allegedly claimed his car had been stolen and used to hit his son on February 18, 2025. Dash cam video from the vehicle told a different story and Altamirano was arrested and charged.
Aiding and assisting with filing a false or fraudulent tax return is punishable by up to three years in prison per count and a $100,000 fine.
The charges contained in the indictment are only allegations. A person is presumed innocent unless and until he or she is proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
The tax fraud case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI).
The tax fraud case is being prosecuted by the Economic Crimes Unit.
IRS-CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a 90% federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 14 attaché posts abroad.