Los Angeles, California – LAWFUEL – The Legal Newswire – Appearing before United States District Judge Manuel Real L. Real, a former Lomita CPA and tax return preparer was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison for filing false tax returns with the IRS.
James Michael Jerra (aka James Michael Porter) was sentenced to 30 months in prison following his August 2007 conviction on three counts of subscribing to false federal income tax returns for the 2002 tax year.
According to the indictment, Jerra falsely claimed a refund of over $3 million from the IRS on the returns he filed. Evidence presented at trial showed that Jerra filed two false 2002 employment tax returns for his business Jandel Corporation with the IRS, which falsely claimed that Jandel Corporation paid wages and compensation of $9,986,724. Additionally, Jerra claimed that from those payments, income taxes of $3,854,875 had been withheld for 2002. However, Jandel Corporation had not paid any wages or compensation in 2002, nor had the company withheld any income taxes from payments made for wages or other compensation. Jerra also filed a false 2002 personal federal income tax return with the IRS which falsely reported wages of $9,986,724 and withholding of $3,854,875. Then Jerra offset the reported wages on his tax return with a false gambling loss of over $7 million. Based upon the fabricated personal tax return, Jerra falsely claimed a refund for 2002 of $3,089,460 when, in fact, Jerra had not received any wages, nor had any taxes been withheld from him in 2002. According to court filings, Jerra did not receive the refund he had claimed.
Judge Real ordered Jerra to begin serving his prison term immediately.
The investigation of Jerra was conducted by IRS- Criminal Investigation and prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office – Tax Division in Los Angeles.
