Date: June 14, 2024 Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov Tampa, FL — U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle has sentenced Abdul Q. Aziz to 15 months in federal prison for aiding in the preparation and filing of numerous false and fraudulent income tax returns. Aziz entered a guilty plea on April 4, 2022. According to court documents, Aziz aided in the preparation of false income tax returns on behalf of friends and family members. He offered to help these taxpayers obtain large and unwarranted refunds by filing tax returns which falsely claimed income obtained and withholding credits based upon the payment of interest on mortgages which the taxpayers had previously obtained. The multiple tax returns which Aziz helped to prepare and file with the IRS led to claims on behalf of taxpayers for unlawful and unauthorized refunds in excess of $1.5 million. The actual loss to the IRS as to those returns exceeded $226,000. “This sentencing shows how seriously we are committed to investigating and stopping the filing of fraudulent returns,” said Lani Rosado-Espinal, acting Special Agent in Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS CI) Tampa Field Office. “Schemes meant to defraud the government will be uncovered. We hope that anyone thinking of participating in this kind of nefarious activity will pause and hopefully realize that their freedom is more valuable than the potential for ill-gotten gains.” This case was investigated by the IRS CI. It is part of a lengthy investigation by the IRS in Tampa and Orlando centered upon this mortgage income/withholding scheme. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jay L. Hoffer. 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.
