By Chris Sheldon | NJ.com
nj.com
(TNS)
A Bergen County, NJ, tax preparer convicted in what prosecutors called the nation’s largest COVID‑19 tax relief fraud case was sentenced Wednesday to 12 years in prison, federal authorities said.
Leon Haynes, 52, of Teaneck, was found guilty last year of 15 counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false tax returns, one count of mail fraud and two counts of tax evasion, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office District of New Jersey.
“Pandemic relief programs were created to support Americans during a national crisis, but Haynes—a tax preparer entrusted to help people comply with the law—treated those programs as a personal cash machine,“ U.S. Attorney Robert Frazer said in the statement.
”Our office will continue to pursue those who exploit emergency relief programs and hold them accountable for stealing from the American people,” he added.
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Haynes helped file more than 1,900 false tax returns during the pandemic, most containing false information about the number of employees and wages, the office said.
Congress authorized the employee retention tax credit and sick and family leave credit to help struggling businesses during COVID.
Haynes took advantage of those credits from November 2020 to May 2023 “for his own greed,” prosecutors said.
For example, the vast majority of the tax forms claimed a fake number of employees and in many cases, fabricated wages, investigators said.
He sought more than $170 million in tax credits for his clients, and ultimately received about $55 million, authorities said.
Haynes received a portion of the money for his services, asked clients to pay in cash to avoid a paper trail and failed to report the income to the IRS, the office said.
In addition to his prison sentence, Haynes was also ordered to pay more than $55 million in restitution to the IRS.
Haynes’ attorney Vando Cardoso told NJ.com that he had no comment on Wednesday’s sentencing.
Photo credit: new look casting/iStock
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©2026 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit nj.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency LLC.
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