Yonkers tax preparer charged

A tax preparer at a Yonkers agency faces multiple felony charges for allegedly filing fraudulent income tax returns, stealing a client”™s tax refund and trafficking in Social Security numbers used on clients”™ false returns.

The state Department of Taxation and Finance said Catherine Vidarte, 29, an employee of Pupilo Agency Inc., was charged with nine felonies and a misdemeanor. If convicted, she could be sentenced to four years in prison.

The Yonkers resident was charged in Yonkers City Court with fourth-degree grand larceny for allegedly stealing a $2,925 tax refund issued to an undercover officer from the state Tax Department. She also was charged with third-degree attempted criminal tax fraud for allegedly listing a child of another client as a dependant on the undercover officer”™s tax returns.

Vidarte also was charged with fourth-degree criminal tax fraud, two counts of offering a false instrument for a filing and a misdemeanor count of aiding or assisting in the giving of fraudulent personal income tax returns for allegedly using the Social Security numbers of another client”™s children on two years of personal income tax returns prepared for Vidarte”™s cousin.  The felony complaint alleges that she purchased the Social Security numbers from the children”™s mother through an intermediary.

Vidarte additionally was charged with fourth-degree criminal tax fraud and offering a false instrument for filing for allegedly preparing a state personal income tax return in 2010 for a married couple that understated the clients”™ tax liability by more than $3,000.

Vidarte also charged with filing false state tax returns for herself in each of the last three filing years.

Vidarte is scheduled to appear in Yonkers City Court on Feb. 8.

Westchester County District Attorney Janet DiFiore and Assistant District Attorney Nicole Gamble aided the state tax department in prosecuting the case.