On December 14, 2020, in the Northern District of Georgia, tax preparer Stanley Everage was sentenced to two years' imprisonment for conspiracy to defraud the United States. Everage was initially indicted on February 19, 2019, for aiding the filing of a false tax return and conspiracy to defraud the United States.

According to the court documents, beginning in 2010 and continuing until 2016, Everage, Chief Executive Officer of a tax preparation business, conspired to defraud the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) by preparing and filing fraudulent tax returns for his clients. Without the knowledge and consent of his clients, Everage knowingly added false income information such as wages, fictitious businesses, and erroneous tax credits to his clients' tax returns. As part of the conspiracy, Everage kept a portion of the fraudulent tax refunds for himself and paid the balance to his clients. Upon learning the IRS froze several of his clients' tax returns, Everage furthered the conspiracy by filing a complaint with the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA). Everage falsely informed TIGTA that all of the information within the tax returns came from his clients.

Everage was sentenced to 24 months' imprisonment, three years of supervised release, and was ordered to pay $110,840 in restitution. This investigation was worked jointly by TIGTA and IRS-Criminal Investigation.

Source:  The facts in this case narrative come from the following publicly available documents: N.D. Ga., Judg., December 14, 2020; N.D. Ga., Indict., February 19, 2019; and N.D. Ga., Mins., December 14, 2020.