Four Arrested After Tax Fraud Indictments
Four San Bernardino County tax preparers were arrested Monday on suspicion of filing thousands of falsified tax returns that cost the U.S. government more than $14.4 million.
Matthew and Carla Berry of Rialto and Karen Berry and Ivan Johnson of San Bernardino were charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States; Valerie Dixon of Rialto was also charged but not arrested.
The Berrys, Johnson and Dixon prepared more than 11,000 falsified income tax returns from 2000 to 2004, according to a federal indictment of the five handed up by a Los Angeles grand jury Wednesday.
The defendants allegedly claimed phony deductions for customers, submitted bogus documentation for audits and failed to report more than $1.5 million earned from the scheme to the Internal Revenue Service.
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