On Thursday, Acting United States Attorney W. Stephen Muldrow announced the unsealing of an indictment against a Jacksonville, Florida tax preparer. Ernest Ray Lewis has been charged with 17 counts of aiding and assisting in the filing of false tax returns and four counts of failing to file a tax return. The indictment suggests that Lewis worked at a tax return preparation business in Jacksonville.
It is alleged that Lewis knowingly submitted false information on client income tax returns. This included false business losses and dependent exemptions. This ultimately lowered the amount owed to the Internal Revenue Service and increased the amount of tax refunds received. The indictment claims that Lewis allegedly filed 17 false returns on behalf of ten clients for the 2012 through 2015 tax years.
The indictment also claims that Lewis failed to file his own income tax return for the years 2012 through 2015. The owner of the business, Elizabeth M. Jordan, and her daughter, Dolores A. Youmans, were indicted on June 30, 2016. Their cases remain pending. At this point in time, Ernest Ray Lewis is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
