False Tax Return

Jan 24 2013

Filing fraudulent data is all too easy

NEW YORK—Just because they’re already behind bars doesn’t mean they aren’t making out like bandits.

Prisoner tax fraud has ballooned in recent years. In 2010, more than 91,000 inmate returns claimed $758 million in fraudulent refunds, a new audit from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration finds. That’s more than double the previous year.

While the IRS stopped the vast majority of fraudulent refunds from actually getting into the hands of prisoners, $35 million still slipped through the cracks.

Jan 4 2013

William Douglas Agopian, 61, of Santa Ana

LOS ANGELES, Calif.—A former chief business officer for the Lynwood Unified School District was sentenced today to eight years behind bars for diverting more than $700,000 in public funds for his own use.

William Douglas Agopian, 61, of Santa Ana, pleaded guilty Sept. 4 to one felony count each of misappropriation of public funds and filing a false tax return.

Jun 6 2011

Meredian Financial Corp. and Fortis Title Solutions

IRVINE, Calif.—Law enforcement officers sought the owner of a Costa Mesa refinance and escrow company charged with felony grand theft in a loan modification scheme that defrauded customers in California and at least four other states.

Across Black America

Here’s a look at African American people and issues making headlines throughout the country.

California
San Diego college students and volunteers will carry out their sixth home restoration project on Wednesday, July 10 through Sunday, July 14. as part of the “Healing our Heroes’ Homes” (H3) program created by the nonprofit Embrace. The five-day effort will take place at the home of medically retired Marine Corps Capt. Sarah Bettencourt. Bettencourt served with many different units across the country during the Global War on Terrorism and developed a rare neurological disorder in 2008. With a focus to restore the homes of disabled veteran homeowners, H3 falls in line with Embrace’s mission to mobilize college-student volunteers and community members to serve less fortunate members of civilian and veteran communities. The project for the Bettencourts’ home includes kitchen and bathroom remodeling, building ADA-compliant disability ramps, widening their driveway to ADA standards, widening doorways and landscaping.
 
District of Columbia
The 2013 Smithsonian Folklife Festival will showcase its five-year community research project on African American identity with the program “The Will to Adorn: African American Diversity, Style, and Identity.” This multicity collaboration examines the history and culture of the aesthetics of African Americans. The festival will be held June 26-30 and July 3-7, outdoors on the National Mall between Seventh and 14th streets. “Whether we realize it or not, we are all dress artists. The way we compose our look is a creative expression of our ideas about who we are and who we aspire to be,” said Diana N’Diaye, program curator. “This program explores the diversity of African American traditions of style, but also teaches young people the importance of documenting their own culture and saving that information for themselves and future generations.”