A former Mansfield tax preparer has been sentenced to nearly five years in federal prison for his involvement in a fraudulent tax scheme. Festus Adenisimi, 65, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas.
U.S. Senior District Judge Barbara M. G. Lynn sentenced Adenisimi to 57 months in federal prison and ordered him to pay $10,283,737.65 in restitution to the victims of his crimes.
Adenisimi was the owner of FA Tax, a tax preparation business where he and other employees filed fraudulent tax returns, often leading to the IRS issuing refunds that were not entitled to the clients. Additionally, Adenisimi admitted to falsifying his own tax returns as part of the scheme.
In his plea agreement, Adenisimi also acknowledged fraudulently obtaining two Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans totaling $760,415 under the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) COVID-19 relief program. The PPP program, which was intended to help small businesses maintain payroll during the pandemic, provided forgivable loans for qualified businesses.
Adenisimi was found to have used false information to obtain the loans, which he misused for personal gain. In addition to the prison sentence, the court ordered Adenisimi to pay restitution for both the tax fraud and PPP loan fraud. The investigation was conducted by the IRS-Criminal Investigations division.
