Tax Preparer Accused of Filing Bogus Returns Files Bogus Returns While Awaiting Trial, Feds Say

By Sarah Q. Wirskye - On

Dallas Morning News, March 11, 2018.

Jimmy Luis Briseno was lucky for someone facing a felony tax fraud charge.

Briseno, who ran a tax preparation business, got a break in 2016 when a federal judge granted his request to work at a related mailing business while awaiting trial on the tax case. The mailing business is in the same Garland and Mesquite offices where he operates his tax preparation service, Tax Genius, according to court records.

So the judge did not look kindly when learning  from the IRS that Briseno, 46, was back to his old tricks, submitting fraudulent tax returns for clients. During a Feb. 27 revocation hearing, U.S. Magistrate Judge Renee Toliver sent the Sunnyvale man back behind bars where he will stay until his trial.

“The court finds that defendant is unlikely to abide by any condition or combination of conditions of release the court could impose,” Toliver said in her order revoking Briseno’s pretrial release.

Such violations are rare in white-collar fraud cases, say local attorneys.

Sarah Q. Wirskye, who represents a co-defendant in the case, Mike Cano, called it “something courts don’t look kindly on.” She said she’s never had a client violate his pretrial release in 20 years of representing people charged with white-collar crimes.

“If I were the judge, it wouldn’t make me very happy,” she said about violating court orders.

Wirskye said it makes preparing a defense more difficult because the client is not as available. And at sentencing, the judge is less likely to be lenient if the defendant had his pretrial release revoked, she said….

Click here to read the complete story, by Kevin Krause, at the Dallas Morning News.

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