Las Vegas tax preparer sentenced to prison for fraud schemes
A Las Vegas tax preparer was sentenced Wednesday to more than 13 years in prison for multiple fraud schemes, including filing false tax returns and impersonating an FBI agent.
King Isaac Umoren, 41, reached a plea agreement in June with federal prosecutors on counts of filing false tax returns, aggravated identity theft, wire fraud and money laundering, court records show.
Umoren owned and operated Universal Tax Services, a tax preparation business based in Las Vegas.
Between 2012 and 2016, he prepared and filed tax returns that included false documents and fake businesses in order to get larger refunds. He also used the names of other tax preparers to make it seem like he did not file the false returns, according to Internal Revenue Service criminal investigators.
In 2016, he posed as an FBI agent by wearing a fake badge and tactical gear, and he drove to a client’s house with police lights attached to his vehicle to demand payment of a tax preparation fee.
Later that year, he sold the tax preparation business for about $3.8 million but used forged bank statements, fabricated return preparation fee reports and false tax returns to sell at an inflated price. He used the money from the sale to buy land in Henderson and a vehicle, according to the IRS.
On Wednesday, Umoren was sentenced to 13 years, three months in prison. He is required to pay about $9.7 million in restitution to the United States and victims of his fraud schemes.
Contact David Wilson at dwilson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @davidwilson_RJ on Twitter.
