Taxable Talk

Back in 2000, a company made the following boast on the Internet:

Oryan Management has developed a simple, “Turn-Key” method for you, the ordinary taxpayer to receive these Tax Credits and Deductions while keeping your costs low. Depending on how you pay your taxes, you could reduce your next quarterly payment by more than your out-of-pocket expenses for the year.

In addition to offering positive cash flow and business stability, Oryan assures your peace of mind by providing Pre-Paid Audit Protection on your tax return.

Wow, that sounds good. The tax credit was for modifications made for the Americans With Disabilities Act. Of course, like most credits you actually have to make building modifications; it really wasn’t available for everyone without doing that.

The IRS investigated, and the prepaid audit defense was worth exactly what you paid for it.

As I first reported back in 2009,

The government alleges that the scheme combined the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) with tax fraud. The idea of Tax Break 2000 was that you could get a tax credit for making facilities ADA compliant. However, the government alleges that Mr. Prokop and two individuals from Las Vegas conspired to defraud the US, committed tax fraud, and aided in preparing false tax returns.

Well, four years later and the trial has ended here in Las Vegas. The three indicted men, Alan Rodrigues, Weston Coolidge, and former NFL punter Joseph Prokop, were found guilty earlier today. Rodrigues and Coolidge were found guilty on 20 felony counts; Prokop was found guilty on 18 of 20 counts. Appeals of the verdict are expected.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 27th, 2014 at 7:41 pm and is filed under Tax Fraud. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.