Four San Bernardino County tax preparers were arrested Monday on suspicion of filing thousands of falsified tax returns that cost the U.S. government more than $14.4 million.
Matthew and Carla Berry of Rialto and Karen Berry and Ivan Johnson of San Bernardino were charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States; Valerie Dixon of Rialto was also charged but not arrested.
The Berrys, Johnson and Dixon prepared more than 11,000 falsified income tax returns from 2000 to 2004, according to a federal indictment of the five handed up by a Los Angeles grand jury Wednesday.
The defendants allegedly claimed phony deductions for customers, submitted bogus documentation for audits and failed to report more than $1.5 million earned from the scheme to the Internal Revenue Service.
