BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - A Baton Rouge tax preparer faces felony charges for a tax fraud scheme that officials say cost Louisiana taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The state Department of Revenue says Joseph A. Gillies prepared and submitted hundreds of returns that contained fabricated business losses for companies that, in some cases, did not exist.
Numerous clients told investigators they didn’t report any business losses when they provided Gillies with their tax records. Some whose tax returns contained fabricated business losses reported that they weren’t even business owners.
From 2012-2015, the alleged fraud scheme cost Louisiana taxpayers an estimated $768,740.
Gillies was arrested Tuesday on charges of principal to filing or maintaining false public records and principal to illegal transmission of monetary funds. It was unknown if he’s represented by an attorney.
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