Professional Tax Preparer Wins Prison Trip For IRS Cheating Scams

As a professional tax preparer, Mark Joseph Jensen didn't just help steal money from the U.S. Treasury by falsifying tax returns in the name of his clients.

Jensen also secretly diverted client refunds into his own bank account and didn't bother to file income tax documents for himself during several years.

After he was caught by the Internal Revenue Service's criminal division he hoped he could pay for his crimes with a sentence of probation so that he wouldn't be separated from his wife and kids.

Assistant United States Attorney Joseph McNally argued that Jensen's crimes weren't the result of a momentarily loss of judgment but rather multiple scams--including a fraudulent mortgage deduction scheme--run over many years.

(One of Jensen's victims was a 30-year veteran Los Angeles Police Department officer assigned to Counter-Terrorism and Special Operations Bureau.)

McNally sought a punishment of 18 months in prison and, when the white collar crook from Colton emerges, three years of federal probation.

This month, U.S. District Court Judge Andrew J. Guilford inside the Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse in Santa Ana agreed and ordered Jensen to surrender to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons by noon on Jan. 18, 2013.

He is the listed owner of Community Service Youth Activity and Wrightwood Mountain Productions.

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