JUSTICE DEPARTMENT ASKS FEDERAL COURT TO BAR MISSOURI MAN FROM PREPARING TAX RETURNS FOR OTHERS

St. Louis Tax Preparer Allegedly Based False Deductions on Fictitious Businesses

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Justice Department has filed a suit in federal court seeking to bar David O’Bryant of St. Louis from preparing federal income tax returns for others. The civil injunction suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, alleges that O’Bryant prepares tax returns for customers that contain fictitious or inflated deductions and credits, in some cases based on fictitious businesses. The government’s suit alleges that O’Bryant has prepared an estimated 1,165 returns since 2002 that have caused a loss to the U.S. Treasury of more than $2 million

The lawsuit asks the court to order O’Bryant to give the Justice Department a list of his customers’ names, addresses, e-mail addresses, and Social Security numbers.

Since 2001 the Justice Department has obtained more than 210 injunctions to stop the promotion of tax fraud schemes and the preparation of fraudulent returns. More information about these cases is available on the Justice Department website at http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/taxpress2006.htm. More information about the Justice Department’s Tax Division can be found at http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/index.html.