Date: Feb. 14, 2024 Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov Charlotte, NC — Tijan Mboob, a/k/a “TJ,” a/k/a “Teejay McBoob,” a/k/a “Sheikhtijan,” of Charlotte, was sentenced today to 24 months in prison followed by one year of supervised release for tax fraud, announced Dena J. King U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. Donald “Trey” Eakins, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (CI), Charlotte Field Office, joins U.S. Attorney King in making today’s announcement. According to filed court documents and court proceedings, from 2014 to 2021, Mboob prepared or caused to be prepared hundreds of fraudulent tax returns for clients, that were submitted to the IRS. The tax returns included fabricated and fraudulent items, including false filing status, false American Opportunity and education credits, false itemized deductions, and false reforestation credits, among others. Mboob’s inclusion of the fabricated and fraudulent items resulted in the reduction of his clients’ tax liabilities and inflated refunds totaling more than $4.7 million. Court records show that after Mboob prepared the fraudulent returns, he refused to assist clients who received correspondence from the IRS questioning items on their tax returns that Mboob had prepared and filed. According to court records, Mboob operated as a “ghost” preparer, because contrary to IRS requirements he failed to identify himself as a paid tax preparer on the tax returns he prepared or submitted for his clients. Court documents further show that Mboob failed to report any of the preparation fees he earned as income for tax years 2017 and 2020, and did not file any tax returns for tax years 2018 and 2019. On Sept. 21, 2023, Mboob pleaded guilty to aiding and assisting in the preparation and filing of false tax returns. Mboob will be ordered to report to the federal Bureau of Prisons to begin serving his sentence upon designation of a federal facility. In making today’s announcement U.S. Attorney King thanked CI for their investigation of the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Cassye Cole and Graham Billings of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte are prosecuting the case. 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. CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.
