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Man charged with preparing fraudulent income tax returns

2 min read

A Cape Coral man is accused of preparing fraudulent tax returns for several clients over a two-year period that totaled more than $120,000 in refunds.

Alfred Ferreras, 26, was arrested and charged Monday with 20 counts of preparing false and fraudulent income tax returns. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of three years in federal prison for each of the counts.

The indictment for Ferreras was filed Jan. 18 with the U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida’s Fort Myers Division, according to documents.

His arraignment was scheduled for Wednesday in federal court.

He could not be reached for comment about the allegations.

“An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed a violation of the federal criminal laws, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless, and until, prove guilty,” U.S. Attorney Robert O’Neil wrote in a prepared statement released Tuesday.

According to the indictment, Ferreras prepared tax returns for at least 13 clients during the 2008 and 2009 calendar years. In preparing the returns, he allegedly included false net loss information from the clients’ businesses.

In some cases, Ferreras reportedly included fraudulent First Time Home Buyer credits for his clients. The false filings results in undue refunds. The undue refunds ranged from about $795 in one case to $15,282 in another.

Ferreras allegedly created about $120,086 total in fraudulent refunds.

The case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tama Koss Caldarone is handling the case.