His business earned over $1.3 million in 3 years. But it was your money

Corry Pearson opened Tax King in 2012, though he lacked certified public accountant status. A 2008 conviction as a cocaine dealer shows the Riviera Beach man can juggle numbers.

At Tax King, he managed some nice numbers over three years, such as more than 1,600 tax returns filed and more than $1.3 million in tax-return cash.

And because almost all those returns have been found to be fraudulent in one or multiple ways, Pearson doesn’t need to juggle numbers anymore. He need only remember No. 16072-104, his federal prison inmate number, after being convicted last week on 16 counts of wire fraud, eight counts of aggravated identity theft, four counts of money laundering and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Pearson, 28, will learn the number of years he’ll be in prison on Dec. 19.

“In some cases, the defendant and his accomplices stole other people’s identities and filed federal income tax returns in the victims’ names, collecting the refunds for themselves,” the Justice Department stated. “In order to disguise their own identities, the defendant and his accomplices listed victims of identity theft as tax preparers on the returns they filed and directed that the refunds be deposited onto debit cards and into accomplices’ bank accounts.”

Pearson went to trial despite the federal government’s rarely blemished record in court and co-conspirator Stephane Anor pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. In Anor’s admission of guilt, she said, she prepared returns so that the numbers added up to a final refund amount set by Pearson.

She admitted to Internal Revenue Service agents that she’d “play with the numbers, but not too much to cause a red flag.” Asked to define what “play with the numbers” meant, she replied “school credit, gas credit, child care credit.''

Anor also flatly admitted she put false figures on almost every return for the tax year 2013.

This story was originally published October 10, 2017 at 12:00 PM with the headline "His business earned over $1.3 million in 3 years. But it was your money."