A Mount Vernon man accused of filing false tax returns for clients says he is innocent and has the records to prove it.
Samuel Gentle, 59, was arrested and charged on March 30 with 50 counts of aiding and assisting preparation of false and fraudulent income tax returns from 2009 to 2013. He pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court, White Plains.
“I have the documents to support everything I do with the taxes,” Gentle said in a telephone interview. “I know in my heart I did not do it.”
Gentle operates GenGen Corp. at 35 Colonial Place, Mount Vernon.
The indictment says Gentle itemized more than $630,000 in false deductions for gifts to charities and for business expenses for 17 clients.
The investigation began around April 2012, when an undercover Internal Revenue Service agent posed as a client seeking tax preparation services. The agent recorded the meeting with concealed audio-video equipment.
The agent presented Gentle with a W-2 form that purported to represent income in 2011. After a short conversation, the indictment says, Gentle prepared a document that itemized false deductions for gifts to charities and for employee business expenses that the undercover agent had never discussed or documented.
Gentle prepared a tax return claiming a $574 refund. He filed the tax return electronically and collected a $50 fee from the agent.
In Gentle”™s account of the meeting, the agent posed as a construction worker and presented a W-2 form showing about $29,000 in income. The form looked legitimate, he said. He questioned the agent about expenses, like driving to construction jobs. He recalls the agent saying he donated $300 or $400 to a charity.
He does not recall if the agent demanded or hinted at a desire for false deductions. “I”™m interested in seeing what”™s on the tape,” Gentle said.
Gentle prepared the tax return. “He looked at it. I signed it and he signed it.”
The whole process took about 15 to 20 minutes.
Gentle typically charges $160 but the agent said he didn”™t”™ have the money. “I charged him $50.”
Gentle is puzzled why he is being accused of wrongdoing now, for tax returns he prepared from March 2009 to June 2013. He said he has never before had trouble with the IRS.
Clients began contacting him about two years ago about the IRS questioning their tax returns. Then about a year ago, an IRS agent called him and said he”™d better get an attorney because an arrest warrant was being prepared.
“I got scared,” he said. “I got an attorney.””
Last fall a federal grand jury subpoenaed his tax records, and he began hearing from more clients.
Gentle said clients told him that two IRS agents visited them.
“They”™d go to their houses, sometimes 10 at night, and try to interview them,” he said. “Some of them said there was guy who kind of intimidated them. The main thing, they said I tell them to file false taxes, something like that. They tell them, no.”
Jim Margolin, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, said he could not comment on Gentle”™s version of events. “We are really limited as to what”™s in the indictment. More may come out in subsequent court proceedings.”
Margolin said he could not answer questions about the case and had to stay within the “four corners of the indictment,” when he was contacted before Gentle had responded to a request for an interview.
Gentle said the undercover agent who posed as a construction worker appeared to be of Indian descent. His business caters to the West Indian and Caribbean ethnic communities, and Gentle was born in the Caribbean, though he would not say exactly where.
He also is puzzled about how the government thinks he was enriched from the alleged scheme. He charges a standard fee, $160. The indictment says he files about 3,400 tax returns a year. Gentle said he actually files about 2,000 tax returns a year. Using his standard fee, that would work out to about $320,000 a year in gross revenue.
“I”™m not here to get rich,” he said. “I”™m just providing a service to this community that people neglect.”
He surrendered his passport and posted a $100,000 bond secured by his property. He was put on pretrial supervision and told to restrict travel to parts of New York.
“All those are frightening things,” he said. “I”™ve never been through this before, but if that”™s what they want I”™ll do it.”
He thinks publicity about the case will probably hurt business, but he will continue to do what he does.
“I”™m not worried,” he said. “I”™m going to have my day in court.”
