ATLANTA – A Statesboro man faces up to five years in prison for willfully filing false income tax returns.
Samir Patel pleaded guilty Tuesday to evading the proper assessment of his personal federal income taxes.
Patel was a tax return preparer at a national return preparation business from 1999 until 2021, according to court documents. In 2015, he bought a franchise of the business in Claxton.
Patel was charged with underreporting his income for tax years 2015, 2016, and 2017.
After any prison term he serves, he also faces a period of supervised release and will be required to pay restitution and monetary penalties. U.S. District Court Chief Judge J. Randall Hall for the Southern District of Georgia will determine any sentence after considering U.S. sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors.
Tuesday’s announcement of the guilty plea came from Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and Jill E. Steinberg, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Georgia.