Did you pay Tomeka Wimberly at Wizard Tax Services Inc. to fill out your return this year? Did she claim Doritos and Mountain Dew on your work expenses? How about the little known "new underwear credit"?
And did you get a nice refund of roughly $4,000?
If so, we hope you haven't spent it yet, because a federal jury just convicted Wimberly of 24 counts of preparing fraudulent income returns. The IRS is gonna want that cash back.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Wimberly was a "self-taught" tax preparer who tabulated thousands of false tax returns between 2004 and 2005. She is listed online as the president of Wizard Tax Services, located at 2746 NW 167th Street in Miami Gardens.
"The false returns reported fictitious and/or inflated deductions for un-reimbursed employee business expenses, charitable contributions, mortgage interest, and investment deductions, as well as false education, child care, and child and dependent expenses," a press release says.
Apparently, Wimberly got better and better at swindling Uncle Sam. Her first year, she prepared over 700 tax returns for more than $2 million in refunds. That's an average of almost three grand per return.
But by 2006, Wimberly had prepared roughly 1,000 tax returns and obtained more than $4 million in refunds, or $4,000 per return.
Wimberly was convicted of 24 out of 41 counts. She could face up to 72 years in prison and fine of $2.4 million. Sentencing is scheduled for September 20.
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