Mount Vernon tax preparer gets 4 years in prison

A Mount Vernon tax preparer has been sentenced to 51 months in federal prison for filing false tax returns on behalf of his clients and under-reporting his own income, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara announced Tuesday.

Bharara, the federal prosecutor for New York's Southern District, said 59-year-old Samuel Gentle, who owned tax-preparation businesses in Mount Vernon called GenGen and GenGen Financial, filed about 3,200 tax returns a year from 2010 to 2014.

Over that time, Bharara said the tax returns contained a pattern of false and inflated dedications for business expenses and gifts to charity. During the same time period, Gentle also failed to report his own personal and business taxes, according to the federal prosecutor.

INDICTED: Mount Vernon tax preparer indicted for filing false income returns

CONVICTED: Mount Vernon tax preparer convicted of 39 charges

Bharara said Gentle's crimes resulted in a loss to the IRS of more than $550,000.

In addition to prison time, he was sentenced to one year of supervised release, ordered to pay a $125,000 fine and pay the IRS over $295,000 in back taxes.

As part of the investigation, an undercover IRS agent posed as a client at Gentle’s business. The agent provided Gentle with a W-2 form showing income from wages but nothing to support any deductions.

In the agent's tax return, Bharara said Gentle included false deductions for business expenses and gifts to charity, which would've allowed the return to fraudulently claim a refund.

Gentle was facing a 50-count indictment, but prosecutors said only 39 counts were submitted to the jury for consideration. After a five-day trial in July, he was found guilty of one count of interfering with the administration of the internal revenue laws and 38 counts of aiding and assisting the preparation of false and fraudulent U.S. tax returns.

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