A former Freeport tax preparer pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud and one count of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false tax returns in connection with a scheme during the COVID-19 pandemic that defrauded the U.S. government out of $12 million in federal court on Wednesday, Jan. 28, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of New York.
Damaris Beltre, 58, faces a maximum sentence of 53 years’ imprisonment, as well as restitution of approximately $12 million when she is sentenced.
Beltre owned and operated multiple corporate entities offering tax preparation and other financial services in Freeport, and from January 2021 through April 2024, she personally prepared and supervised employees in the preparation of false and fraudulent individual income tax returns and associated schedules and forms for her client-taxpayers, which were submitted to the IRS, according to court documents.
The tax returns that Beltre was responsible for dealing with listed false dependents and fraudulently claimed tens of millions of dollars in COVID-19-related tax credits and motor fuel income tax credits to directly reduce tax liability and provide substantial refunds to which her clients were not entitled, court documents said.
Beltre’s clients paid over $1 million in fees for her services, which included a percentage of any tax refund issued, prosecutors said.
In April 2023, an undercover federal agent hired Beltre to prepare his individual income tax return, and if they had prepared his tax return accurately, the agent would have owed the IRS roughly $205, prosecutors said.
Beltre prepared an income tax return for the agent that contained false and fraudulent statements and baseless tax credits, and claimed a refund of over $14,243, to which Beltre charged the agent over $2,000 in fees for preparing and submitting the fraudulent tax return, prosecutors said.
As a result of this year-long scheme, the IRS improperly issued nearly $11 million in tax refunds to Beltre’s clients and failed to collect several million dollars due to fraudulently reduced tax liabilities, according to court documents.
In a separate Paycheck Protection Program fraud scheme, from April 2020 through July 2022, Beltre filed and caused to be filed false payroll reports and income tax returns with the IRS on behalf of her corporate clients to fraudulently obtain PPP loans from the SBA, totaling approximately $1 million, court documents said.
Beltre used the proceeds for personal expenses, including paying personal debts, to fund a home in the Caribbean, and to purchase a car and jewelry, prosecutors said.
“Beltre brazenly defrauded the government and callously put her clients in jeopardy to line her own pockets,” U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. said.
“Beltre was a shady tax preparer with a complete disregard for U.S. law or the American public she failed when she fraudulently claimed tens of millions of dollars in COVID-19-related tax credits,” IRS-Criminal Investigation New York Special Agent in Charge Harry T. Chavis, Jr. said.
