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.