April 2, 2019: Baltimore Area Tax Preparer Sentenced For Felony Theft And Willfully Filing A False Tax Return

Baltimore Area Tax Preparer Sentenced For Felony Theft And Willfully Filing A False Tax Return

State Prosecutor Emmet C. Davitt announced today that a Baltimore-area tax preparer, Floyd Briscoe Wright, was sentenced in the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County for felony theft and willfully filing a false tax return. Wright pleaded guilty to those charges on February 1, 2019. The Honorable Laura S. Ripken imposed a sentence of five years’ incarceration with all but ninety days suspended. Upon his release, Wright will be placed on probation for three years. The Judge also ordered Wright to pay $50,000.00 in restitution.

Wright, 66 years old, while employed by the Maryland Department of Human Services (DHS), owned and operated Briscoe & Associates LLC, a tax preparation business in Baltimore, Maryland. Wright pleaded guilty to felony theft and willfully filing a false tax return as part of an ongoing scheme involving the filings of numerous fraudulent returns. In preparing returns, Wright entered false 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 their tax refunds.

“Tax preparers have an obvious 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 Attorney General’s Office and was investigated by both the Office of the State Prosecutor as well as the Comptroller’s Field Enforcement Division.