Tax Returns

UCI police, working with federal and Texan investigators, have narrowed down the source of a security breach that compromised the Social Security numbers of more than 1,000 graduate students to a student resources center in Texas, officials said Wednesday. Since January, 160 UCI graduate and medical students enrolled in the university’s Graduate Student Health Insurance Provider have reported their identities had been stolen after the IRS rejected their income tax returns.

BRIEFLY IN THE NEWS Feds sue Newport Beach accountant Newport Beach tax preparer Kelly David is one of five people named in a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Justice Department Tax Division stating that he and others prepared federal income tax returns using bogus information, U.S. Attorney's office officials said. The complaint, seeking to stop the company and its associates from preparing further tax returns, alleges that David and the others repeatedly prepared tax returns for their customers using false and inflated deductions for charitable contributions, home office and business expenses.

A divorced couple has been convicted of failing to pay taxes on more than $180 million in income from their Costa Mesa business that failed to complete multimillion-dollar projects. Richard and Jolene Engel pleaded guilty Friday to charges that they did not provide tax returns for their power plant refurbishing business, Powerplant Maintenance Specialists, Inc., prosecutors said. Jolene Engel served as the company president. Richard Engel, who served as the chief financial officer, faced additional charges for not filing personal tax returns, the Orange County district attorney's office said in a news release.

Andrew Edwards It happens every spring, but it's not as fun as the start of baseball season or falling in love. Except for people who file extensions, today, April 15, is the last day to mail state and federal income tax returns. And if its true that the only sure things in life are death and taxes, the day may be one of the most dreaded days on the calendar. No less an authority than the Beatles sang out against confiscatory policies of "The Taxman," and Costa Mesa resident Elaine Steinhardt is similarly no fan of writing a check to pay Uncle Sam's bills.

BRIEFLY IN THE NEWS Costa Mesa woman accused of tax fraud A 30-year-old Costa Mesa woman was one of seven indicted Wednesday on charges of falsifying tax returns, fraudulently seeking an estimated $47 million in refunds from the Internal Revenue Service, federal officials said. A federal grand jury in Santa Ana returned a 23-count indictment that accuses the seven defendants, including Heather Lee Chaffin of Costa Mesa, linked to Yorba Linda's DeAngelo Tax Service and Anaheim's Western Tax Service, of conspiring to defraud the IRS and assisting in the filing of false tax returns that included false deductions for charitable contributions.

If a Newport Beach woman does not show up in court today on charges that she didn’t report millions of dollars’ worth of income on her tax returns, a judge will issue a warrant for her arrest, according to court records. Jolene Engel, 59, failed to show up for court Tuesday, so she was ordered to court today for a hearing on a failure to appear. If she doesn’t go, she will likely be arrested. Engel, along with her ex-husband, Richard, 65, failed to report a gross income of nearly $190 million from Richard’s company, Powerplant Maintenance Specialists Inc., based in Huntington Beach, according to the state tax board.

A Costa Mesa woman faces up to 20 years in prison when she’s scheduled to be sentenced in April for participating in the largest medical insurance fraud in the nation’s history, prosecutors said Friday. Sue Nanda, 40, pleaded guilty Friday to felony counts of conspiracy, recruiting patients for fraudulent surgeries, failing to file tax returns, filing fraudulent tax returns and grand theft with an enhancement for white-collar crime. Nanda is one of nearly 20 defendants charged with bilking $154 million from medical insurance companies in California by performing surgeries on people for ailments they didn’t have.

Alicia Robinson It happens every April. People around the country wake up, look at the calendar and are filled a sense of panic instilled by the thought of tax returns. Thursday was the deadline to file state and federal tax returns on 2003 income, and people in Newport-Mesa who hadn't done so already converged on tax preparation services and post offices to have their forms filled out and sent off. "We are looking out the window right now and people are outside in the car lined up because they procrastinated until the last minute," said the aptly named Dave Tax, a Newport Beach tax preparer.

COSTA MESA — The Internal Revenue Service is looking for more than 1,300 Orange County residents — not to collect from them, but to deliver them their uncollected refunds. In all, 1,349 checks totaling $1.6 million in refunds have gone uncollected in Orange County, with the average refund check amounting to $1,229, said Raphael Tulino, a spokesman for the IRS' Southern California and Nevada region. "Basically, we can't find them because there's been a change in address," Tulino said.

A divorced couple has been convicted of failing to pay taxes on more than $180 million in income from their Costa Mesa business that failed to complete multimillion-dollar projects. Richard and Jolene Engel pleaded guilty Friday to charges that they did not provide tax returns for their power plant refurbishing business, Powerplant Maintenance Specialists, Inc., prosecutors said. Jolene Engel served as the company president. Richard Engel, who served as the chief financial officer, faced additional charges for not filing personal tax returns, the Orange County district attorney's office said in a news release.

COSTA MESA — The Internal Revenue Service is looking for more than 1,300 Orange County residents — not to collect from them, but to deliver them their uncollected refunds. In all, 1,349 checks totaling $1.6 million in refunds have gone uncollected in Orange County, with the average refund check amounting to $1,229, said Raphael Tulino, a spokesman for the IRS' Southern California and Nevada region. "Basically, we can't find them because there's been a change in address," Tulino said.

If a Newport Beach woman does not show up in court today on charges that she didn’t report millions of dollars’ worth of income on her tax returns, a judge will issue a warrant for her arrest, according to court records. Jolene Engel, 59, failed to show up for court Tuesday, so she was ordered to court today for a hearing on a failure to appear. If she doesn’t go, she will likely be arrested. Engel, along with her ex-husband, Richard, 65, failed to report a gross income of nearly $190 million from Richard’s company, Powerplant Maintenance Specialists Inc., based in Huntington Beach, according to the state tax board.

Newport Beach resident Jolene Engel, who faces charges of not reporting millions of dollars on her tax returns, was in court Friday morning, but the judge was absent because of a death in his family. After Engel failed to show up in court Tuesday, Judge William R. Froeberg ordered the 59-year-old to be present Friday; otherwise, he said, a warrant for her arrest would be issued. Engel’s court date was rescheduled to 8:30 a.m. March 5 in Room C40 at the Santa Ana Court House.

Former Orange County Assistant Sheriff Don Haidl will have to do a “heavy dose” of community service along with paying $40,000 in fines for lying on his 2002 taxes, but he will not serve jail time, a federal judge said this afternoon. Federal Judge Andrew J. Guilford delayed Haidls’ sentencing Monday after telling the U.S. Attorney’s Office he wasn’t satisfied with Haidl just paying a fine and getting probation. “There’s something to be said for white collar defendants understating the plights and ills of our society,” Guilford told Haidl’s attorney, Mark Byrne.

Former Orange County Assistant Sheriff and Newport Beach resident Don Haidl, who helped bring down Sheriff Mike Corona last year, will be sentenced next week in federal court for filing a false tax return in 2002. Haidl pleaded guilty in 2007 to understating a previous tax return and agreed to uncover corruption by Corona and ex-assistant sheriff George Jaramillo. Federal prosecutors are recommending that Haidl be sentenced to two years’ probation and pay a $40,000 fine. His sentencing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Jan. 25 in U.S. Central District Court in Santa Ana. The probation department is recommending that Haidl serve 18 months in prison on top of the fine.

A Costa Mesa woman faces up to 20 years in prison when she’s scheduled to be sentenced in April for participating in the largest medical insurance fraud in the nation’s history, prosecutors said Friday. Sue Nanda, 40, pleaded guilty Friday to felony counts of conspiracy, recruiting patients for fraudulent surgeries, failing to file tax returns, filing fraudulent tax returns and grand theft with an enhancement for white-collar crime. Nanda is one of nearly 20 defendants charged with bilking $154 million from medical insurance companies in California by performing surgeries on people for ailments they didn’t have.

There was a point during Sgt. Tony Frisbee and Sgt. Shaun Devlin’s identity theft investigation earlier this year where new victims were coming in almost daily. Most of the cases had similar characteristics: Victims’ Social Security numbers were used to file false tax returns, the returns were sent to Texas and the victims all belonged to the same healthcare provider. While the UCI detectives weren’t over their heads yet, the case threatened to become almost too much to handle.

We pride ourselves on being a free society, but the freedoms we enjoy did not arrive without conflict and struggle. We’ve come so far, yet as far as human rights go, we still have a ways to go. In this country, there are still those who object to giving gay people the basic right to marry the people they love. Human rights versus religion is where the argument continually goes. But isn’t there a separation between church and state? In a world with so much hatred and violence, should we deny love to anyone?