Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

Las Vegas woman sentenced to 3 years for filing false tax returns

A Las Vegas tax preparer today was ordered to serve three years in prison for filing false tax returns, which resulted in $2.7 million in losses, according to the office of the U.S. attorney for the district of Nevada.

Ofelia Ronquillo would fraudulently include false items for customers, including charitable contributions and expenses, under her local A.R. Financial LLC and AJRC Tax Services businesses, officials said.

The crimes occurred during a six-year period beginning in 2009, she admitted to authorities, noting that it’d represented more than $2.7 million in losses for the government.

After she is released from prison after 37 months, Ronquillo will be supervised for a year, officials said. She has to pay back more than $16,000.

Ronquillo was indicted by a grand jury in April 2017 and earlier this year pleaded guilty to aiding and assisting in the filing of false tax returns, according to court logs.

“The Department of Justice will continue to hold tax return preparers, who willfully prepare and file fraudulent returns, accountable and to protect the United States Treasury from false refund claims,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman, in a news release.

“Tax return preparers, who purposely prepare false tax returns to get high refunds are stealing directly from American taxpayers,” said Special Agent in Charge Tara Sullivan with the IRS, in the release. “Return preparer fraud is one of the top priorities for IRS-Criminal Investigation, and we will investigate these cases and prosecute those who steal from the American public.”