Fraud charges against owner of Jackson Hewitt franchises

On Tuesday, the U.S. Justice Department filed civil injunctions against five Jackson Hewitt franchises, including the corporations that operate the franchises and 24 people who work at those franchises. The corporations in question operate over 125 Hackson Hewitt locations in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit and Raleigh-Durham.

Farrukh Sohail owns the five corporations in this suit, and these corporations prepared and filed over 105,000 tax returns last year. It is alleged that he and the other individual defendants encouraged fraudulent tax return preparation at his Jackson Hewitt franchises.

The “pervasive fraud” allegations include filing tax returns based upon fake wage forms, deducting fake business expense, and fraud related to the earning income tax credit. The government is claiming that these actions cause $70 million in losses to the U.S. Treasury.

Employees and managers of the Jackson Hewitt locations in question are also accused of receiving kickbacks from customers who had fraudulent returns filed.

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