Tax service employees indicted on IRS charges

Advertiser Staff

A federal grand jury yesterday indicted five employees of a local tax service on charges of obstructing the Internal Revenue Service.

Richard James Basuel, Richard James Basuel II, Dina Grace Naui Caleda, Rosalinda I Tamayo and Vivian Wai Won Soong have been charged with tax-related offenses of conspiracy and preparing false tax returns.

According to the U.S. attorney's office, the indictment alleges that all five tax return preparers in 2000 promoted a "new way" of preparing tax returns for their clients in which they disguised income earned in Hawai'i as foreign earned income.

In most instances, the "new way" of preparing returns resulted in a reported adjusted gross income of zero and a refund of all the client's federal tax withholdings, the office said.

In 2001, Richard Basuel was sentenced in state court to six months in prison for preparing false state income taxes.