Jaqcueline and Gladstone Morrison operated a tax prep business known as Jaqueline Morrison Associates in Arlington, Texas and Fort Worth, Texas. A federal court found them guilty of 18 counts of conspiracy to commit tax offenses and the wire fraud. The married couple filed false income tax returns. They essentially created false losses on Schedule C in order to offset income on their client’s tax returns. Of course the clients were so happy to get these big refunds that the Morrison’s charged bigger fees.
The Morrison’s even went so far as to have the clients sign forms that agreed that the clients were responsible for any false return information.
The Morrison’s actually collected more than 2 million dollars in fees from their clients. These folks then used all this fraudulent information to show that they had a super successful business and enter into a franchise agreement with Express Tax Service, which is a subsidiary of H&R Block. However, to keep that franchise agreement going they hid information from Express Tax such as the fact that they were being investigated by the Federal government.
They now face substantial fine, penalties and time in Federal prison. Sentencing is scheduled for February 6, 2015.