usdoj.gov | 8/19/09 | $600,000 | suspect: Gregory Peters
Gregory A. Peters, 36, of Mesa, Ariz. and owner/operator of PBS Tax Firm Inc., pleaded guilty yesterday to one count of mail fraud, one count of bank fraud and one count of filing a false tax return for the year 2002. Peters admitted that he stole almost $600,000 from clients who thought they were paying sales taxes.
Peters and his wife owned and operated PBS Tax Firm Inc., a bookkeeping and tax return preparation company in Mesa and Scottsdale, Ariz. Through his company, Peters prepared municipal and State of Arizona sales tax returns for several of his clients. He had agreements with at least three of these clients to have them pay Peters their sales taxes along with his accounting fee. Peters would then prepare and submit the required tax returns as well as remit the taxes to the proper authorities.
Peters admitted that he prepared and filed false sales tax returns for these clients, showing that little or no sales tax was owed, while at the same time collecting the proper amount of tax from the clients. In some instances, Peters failed to file any sales tax returns at all, despite receiving substantial amounts of sales taxes from a client. Peters took approximately $589,366 of the funds remitted to him by clients for payment of their accrued sales tax obligations and admitted to using the stolen funds for his lavish personal living and family expenses.
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