Naples tax preparer working in barbershop pleads guilty to defrauding IRS

A Naples tax preparer working out of a local barbershop has pleaded guilty to creating false tax documents and filing false returns.

Wilner Cenecharles, whose age was not disclosed, faces 24 years in federal prison and has agreed to pay $65,707 in restitution.

The charges include six counts of assisting in the preparation of false tax documents and two counts of filing false tax returns. Each count carries a three year prison sentence though the plea agreement says if he cooperates with authorities, prosecutors will recommend a sentence “on the low end” of the guidelines.

Cenecharles’ sentencing is scheduled for July 10.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice and a copy of the plea agreement, starting in 2014 Cenecharles was a tax preparer for Motivational Tax Financial Services and also owned the Excelsior Barbershop.

He operated Motivational Tax out of an office at the barbershop, meeting clients there and preparing returns. He charged between $200 and $600.

The plea agreement says Cenecharles attached false Schedule Cs and in some cases false education credits to returns to generate larger returns for his clients. (A Schedule C is used to track a business’ profit and losses according to the Internal Revenue Service.)

He then used a third-party refund transfer bank to negotiate a portion of the refunds for himself.

The IRS’ civil division opened an investigation on Cenecharles, and several of his clients were audited by a tax compliance officer. Those clients were later interviewed by investigators from the criminal division saying “they did not provide false information to (Cenecharles), and did not instruct or give the defendant permission to put false items on their returns.”

In addition to preparing the false returns for clients, the plea agreement says Cenecharles failed to report accurate gross receipts on his personal taxes for 2019 and 2020 and did not report thousands of dollars in tax preparation fees.

The IRS Criminal Investigation division investigated the case; Assistant United States Attorney Patrick L. Darcey is prosecuting it.