A Terrell man has been sentenced to federal prison and ordered to pay restitution for tax fraud violations in the Eastern District of Texas, according to U.S. Attorney Damien M. Diggs.
Toronto Henderson, 49, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to aid, assist, counsel, or advise in tax fraud and was sentenced to 24 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Jeremy Kernodle on October 16, 2024. In addition to his prison sentence, Henderson was ordered to pay $373,230.00 in restitution.
Court documents revealed that Henderson owned two tax return preparer businesses, where he recruited tax preparers to file income tax returns for clients. He personally trained the preparers on how to complete the tax returns. As part of this training, Henderson and others instructed the preparers to create fraudulent Schedule Cs, which report income and expenses from business operations.
Under Henderson’s guidance, tax preparers used taxpayer information that was unrelated to any actual business or fabricated fictitious data to allow clients to claim business losses they were not entitled to. This fraudulent scheme enabled clients to receive tax refunds unlawfully. The returns, including the false Schedule Cs, were filed by Henderson or employees under his direction. Clients paid a fee to the tax preparation businesses for the services rendered.
The fraudulent activities resulted in a total tax loss of $373,230.00.
The case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigations and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Alan Jackson.
