October 1, 2018: Baltimore Area Tax Preparer Indicted for Felony Theft, Willfully Filing False Taxes and Other Related Charges

Baltimore Area Tax Preparer Indicted for Felony Theft, Willfully Filing False Taxes and Other Related Charges.

Maryland State Prosecutor Emmet C. Davitt announced today that Floyd Briscoe Wright, a Baltimore – area tax preparer, was indicted in the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County for felony theft, willful filing of false tax returns and other related charges.

Wright, 65, an employee of the Maryland Department of Human Services, owned and operated Briscoe & Associates LLC, a tax preparation business in Baltimore, Maryland. Wright is accused of filing fraudulent adjusted gross incomes based on false and inflated business losses, false charitable contributions, fictitious businesses and/or other false filings which minimized his clients’ Maryland tax liabilities and increased the tax refunds the taxpayers received from the Office of the Comptroller. For example, Wright would indicate that one of his clients owned a business that lost tens of thousands of dollars when the client did not own a business at all.

Wright, who is not licensed as a tax preparer in Maryland, has been charged with felony theft in the amount of $227,740.00 along with numerous counts of both willful filing of false tax returns and negligent filing of false tax returns.

“Tax preparers have a responsibility to file honest tax returns,” Davitt stated. “We need to protect Marylanders from tax preparers who engage in this kind of fraud.”

This matter was referred to the Office of the State Prosecutor by the Maryland Attorney General’s Office and was investigated by both the Office of the State Prosecutor as well as the Comptroller’s Field Enforcement Division.

Although charged, the Defendant is presumed innocent unless and until there is a conviction.