Tax Preparer Guilty of Fraud: The Case of Celina Bolton-Fultz
From the stupid tax prepaper files.
Isn’t it incredible how some people believe they are owed something they don’t deserve. This tax preparer stole from taxpayers, applied for and received fraudulent PPP and disaster loans.
Celina Bolton-Fultz of Slidell, Louisiana, pled guilty on October 3, 2024, to thirty counts of assisting in filing false tax returns under 26 U.S.C. § 7206(2), five counts of filing her own false tax returns under 26 U.S.C. § 7206(1), four counts of making false statements under 18 U.S.C. § 1001, and two counts of theft of government funds under 18 U.S.C. § 641. The Honorable Eldon E. Fallon has scheduled sentencing for January 23, 2025.
According to court documents, between 2018 and 2022, Bolton-Fultz submitted thirty fraudulent tax returns for seven clients of her tax preparation business, falsely inflating their income by adding fictitious “household help” income to obtain unwarranted tax credits. Additionally, she manipulated her own income on her tax returns for the years 2017 through 2021 by fraudulently reducing her gross receipts and reporting false expenses.
In relation to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (“CARES Act”), Bolton-Fultz also pled guilty to multiple fraud-related charges. She admitted to submitting fraudulent applications in 2020 and 2021 for Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) loans, providing false business payroll information and fake tax forms. Furthermore, she pled guilty to filing falsified applications for Economic Injury Disaster Loans (“EIDLs”) with the Small Business Administration (“SBA”), thereby fraudulently obtaining $204,103 in PPP and EIDL funds.
Under her plea agreement, Bolton-Fultz agreed to pay at least $405,133 in restitution to the IRS and SBA. She faces a maximum penalty of three years of imprisonment for each tax count, five years for each PPP fraud count, and ten years for each EIDL fraud count. Bolton-Fultz also faces fines up to $100,000 for each tax count and $250,000 for each fraud count, or twice the gross gain or loss under 18 U.S.C. § 3571, or both. Additionally, she faces supervised release terms of up to three years for the fraud counts and up to one year for the tax counts, alongside mandatory special assessment fees.
Houston Tax Preparer Sentenced for Fraudulent Returns
A Houston tax preparer has been sentenced for aiding and assisting in the preparation and filing of false income tax returns, announced U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani. Krystal Wright pleaded guilty on April 17.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey V. Brown has ordered Wright to serve 24 months in federal prison, followed by one year of supervised release. Additionally, she was ordered to pay $525,404 in restitution. During the hearing, the court reviewed her criminal history, the duration of her scheme, and the resulting harm to taxpayers, concluding that a prison sentence was warranted. The court expressed hope that Wright would learn from her actions.
Wright was the sole proprietor and only tax preparer at WW2F in Freeport for six years. Most of her clients did not own businesses or discuss any business-related income or expenses with her. After completing a tax return, Wright did not review the documents with her clients and only provided them with the refund amount and the first two pages of the return. This practice prevented her clients from identifying overstated or false items on their tax returns.
Between 2017 and 2020, Wright prepared and filed approximately 83 federal income tax returns containing false and fraudulent items. These included qualified solar electric property costs, charitable contributions, business expenses, wages, salaries, tips, and supplies. The fraudulent filings resulted in a total sustained tax harm of $525,404.
Wright will remain in custody pending her transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.
The IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Rodolfo Ramirez and James Hu prosecuted the case. IRS-CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft, and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, and they maintain a federal conviction rate exceeding 90 percent. The agency has 20 field offices located across the United States and 12 attaché posts abroad.
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