Tax preparers gone wild

In part one of this two-parter, we examined the schemes of Bonnie G, a self-styled tax preparer who worked out of her basement creating federal and state income tax returns for her clients that contained lies cut from whole cloth to falsely qualify her clients for tax refunds and induce them to continue using — and paying for — her services. Bonnie's lies on her clients' behalf were many, fanciful and liberally applied to the tune of hundreds of returns for five years. Here we'll examine the simpler but equally effective (or lucrative) scheme of Donnie Z., another tax preparer who never made it out of the basement.

First, let's examine Donnie's curriculum vitae, shall we?

Donnie Z.'s résumé

In 1989, Donnie was charged in one complaint with a gross misdemeanor income tax offense and charged in two additional complaints of failure to file state individual tax returns. The latter two charges were dismissed at the same time that the income tax offense charge was continued without prosecution — also in 1989.