Month: January 2023

Source: United States Department of Justice News

The United States filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas yesterday seeking to bar a North Texas-area tax return preparer from preparing federal income tax returns for others. 

The complaint alleges that Jennifer Murley and her tax preparation business prepared over 2,200 federal income tax returns and filed them during 2019 through 2022. According to the complaint, in a number of these tax returns, Murley and her business overstated the customers’ tax refunds by fabricating household help income, which can increase unlawful claims for tax credits, or by fabricating or inflating business losses to reduce taxable income improperly.

The complaint further alleges that by repeatedly understating her customers’ tax liabilities the fraudulent return preparation activities of Murley and her tax preparation business have caused a loss to the United States for returns filed during the years 2019 through 2022 totaling more than an estimated $2 million of tax revenue.

Deputy Assistant Attorney General David A. Hubbert of the Justice Department’s Tax Division made the announcement.

Taxpayers seeking a return preparer should remain vigilant against unscrupulous tax preparers. The IRS has information on its website for choosing a tax return preparer and has launched a free directory of federal tax preparers. The IRS also offers 10 tips to avoid tax season fraud and ways to safeguard their personal information.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

An Illinois man has been arrested and charged by criminal complaint with malicious use of fire and an explosive to damage, and attempt to damage, the Planned Parenthood Peoria Health Center in Peoria.

The complaint alleges that Tyler W. Massengill, 32, of Chillicothe, committed the offense. 

On Jan. 15, law enforcement received a report of a fire in progress at the Planned Parenthood in Peoria. Subsequent investigation — including a review of area surveillance from the fire scene — revealed that at approximately 11:20 p.m., an older white pickup truck with red doors parked in an area adjacent to Planned Parenthood. Video footage depicts a man wearing a coat with a hood pulled up and possible face mask walk up to the building with a laundry detergent-sized bottle. The man lit a rag on fire on one end of the bottle, smashed a window with an object and then placed the container inside of the Planned Parenthood building. He then quickly left the area on foot.

The complaint alleges that law enforcement, acting on several tips, linked the truck to Massengill and ultimately recovered the truck from an individual in Sparland, where Massengill had left it with a request to paint its doors white. After Massengill’s truck was seized, Massengill met with investigators at the Peoria Police Department on Jan. 24 and was taken into custody.

If convicted of the offense, Massengill faces a mandatory minimum sentence of imprisonment of at least five years and could receive up to 40 years in prison. The charges also carry up to three years of supervised release and a possible fine of up to $250,000.

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and U.S. Attorney Gregory K. Harris for the Central District of Illinois made the announcement.

The FBI Springfield Field Office, Peoria Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigated the case, with assistance from the Peoria Fire Department.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald L. Hanna for the Central District of Illinois and Trial Attorney Erin Monju of the Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section are prosecuting the case.

Anyone who has information about incidents of violence, threats and obstruction that target a patient or provider of reproductive health services, or damage and destruction of reproductive health care facilities, should report that information to the FBI at www.tips.fbi.gov. For more information about clinic violence, and the Department of Justice’s efforts to enforce FACE Act violations, please visit www.justice.gov/crt/national-task-force-violence-against-reproductive-health-care-providers.

A complaint is merely an accusation, and a defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

A Chinese national was sentenced today to eight years in prison for acting illegally within the United States as an agent of the People’s Republic of China.

A jury in the Northern District of Illinois last year convicted Ji Chaoqun, 31, on one count of conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government, specifically the People’s Republic of China, without first notifying the Attorney General; one count of acting as an agent of the People’s Republic of China without first notifying the Attorney General; and one count of making a material false statement to the U.S. Army. U.S. District Judge Ronald A. Guzman imposed the sentence.

Evidence presented at trial revealed that Ji worked at the direction of high-level intelligence officers in the Jiangsu Province Ministry of State Security, a provincial department of the Ministry of State Security for the People’s Republic of China. Ji, a Chinese citizen residing in Chicago, was tasked by Xu Yanjun, a Deputy Division Director within the Ministry of State Security, with providing an intelligence officer with biographical information on certain individuals for possible recruitment by the JSSD. The individuals included Chinese nationals who were working as engineers and scientists in the United States, some of whom worked for U.S. defense contractors. This tasking was part of an effort by the Jiangsu provincial department to obtain access to advanced aerospace and satellite technologies being developed by companies within the U.S. Xu was sentenced last year to 20 years in federal prison after being convicted in the Southern District of Ohio of conspiracy and attempting to commit economic espionage and theft of trade secrets.

In 2016, Ji enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserves under the Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest program, which authorized the U.S. Armed Forces to recruit certain legal aliens whose skills are considered vital to the national interest. In his application to participate in the MAVNI program, Ji falsely stated that he had not had contact with a foreign government within the past seven years. In a subsequent interview with a U.S. Army officer, Ji again failed to disclose his relationship and contacts with a foreign intelligence officer.

Evidence at trial further revealed that in 2018 Ji had several meetings with an undercover law enforcement agent who was posing as a representative of the Ministry of State Security. During these meetings, Ji explained that with his military identification, he could visit and take photos of “Roosevelt-class” aircraft carriers. Ji also explained that once he obtained his U.S. citizenship and security clearance through the MAVNI program, he would seek a job at the CIA, FBI or NASA. Ji intended to perform cybersecurity work at one of those agencies so that he would have access to all their databases, including databases that contained scientific research.

Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, U.S. Attorney John R. Lausch Jr. for the Northern District of Illinois and Special Agent in Charge Robert W. “Wes” Wheeler Jr. of the FBI Chicago Field Office made the announcement.

The FBI investigated the case, with valuable assistance provided by the U.S. Army 902nd Military Intelligence Group.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Vikas Didwania and Barry Jonas for the Northern District of Illinois, and Senior Trial Attorney Heather Schmidt of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section prosecuted the case.