Naples tax returns business owner sentenced to 2 years in federal prison

The operator of a tax returns business in Naples was sentenced to two years in federal prison for aiding or assisting in the preparation of false documents under Internal Revenue laws, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice.   

As part of his sentence, Rubens Casseus will also have to pay $59,322 in restitution to the IRS. 

Casseus pleaded guilty in front of U.S. District Judge Sheri Polster Chappell on Aug. 8 and was sentenced on Tuesday.  

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Casseus operated Three Brothers Tax Multiservices Inc. in Naples, where he routinely prepared income tax returns for his clients.  

Between January 2014 and February 2018, Casseus, on behalf of his clients, aided in the preparation and presentation of false and fraudulent tax returns to the Internal Revenue Service, according to court documents.  

Many of these tax returns contained fraudulent information, including representing that the taxpayers were entitled to claim head of household filing status, a false or fictitious dependent and deductions and credits that the taxpayers were not entitled to claim, according to the documents.  

Casseus knew the taxpayers were not entitled to such claims and used the identifying information of children to increase tax refunds for some of his clients, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. 

The false statements Casseus included in the tax returns inflated the tax refunds, thereby defrauding the government of tax revenue in the amount of $59,322 for tax from 2013 to 2017, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.