Orlando women sentenced for fraudulent tax return scheme

FLORIDA – Two Orlando women have been sentenced to prison and ordered to pay $3.796 million in restitution for their roles in preparing fraudulent tax returns.

Erotida Natasha Harden Ortiz has been sentenced to eight years in federal prison, and Aida Cortes has been sentenced to four years and six months in federal prison. Both were sentenced by U.S. District Judge Roy B. Dalton, Jr.

A federal jury found Harden and Cortes guilty in October 2022. Harden was convicted of conspiracy to defraud the United States and six counts of aiding in fraudulent and false statements related to IRS tax returns. Cortes was convicted of one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States.

According to evidence admitted during the trial and sentencing hearing, Ortiz owned Certified Taxes, LLC, and Cortes was her office manager. Prior to opening Certified Taxes, Harden and Cortes both worked for two other tax businesses that had been closed down by the IRS.

From 2016 through 2018, Ortiz and Cortes reportedly orchestrated a scheme to file taxes for unsuspecting taxpayers by filling out fraudulent Schedule C forms, which showed a business loss and enabled the taxpayers to obtain the Earned Income Tax credit. By obtaining the Earned Income Tax credit, the taxpayers were able to receive refunds to which the taxpayers were not entitled.

As a result, the taxpayers reportedly continued to come back to Certified Taxes every year. The evidence revealed that Certified Taxes did not provide the tax returns to the taxpayers to review or review the tax returns with the taxpayers prior to filing them with the IRS.

During the conspiracy, Certified Taxes reportedly filed more than 3,600 tax returns with the IRS, with only one tax return resulting in a taxpayer owing money to the IRS. For each tax return, Certified Taxes charged the taxpayer approximately $400, resulting in Certified Taxes receiving more than $1.2 million in tax preparation fees, prosecutors said.

In addition, in the last year of operation, Harden reportedly claimed income from Certified Taxes of approximately $394,000 but due to a fraudulent Schedule C, which claimed expenses of $379,000 on her tax return, she was able to qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit and receive a refund of $6,375, said the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida.

At sentencing, Harden and Cortes were ordered to repay the IRS $3.796 million in restitution for the fraudulent tax returns that generated tax refunds to which taxpayers were not entitled.

“Knowingly submitting false documents to the IRS is a crime,” said Ronald A. Loecker, IRS-CI Acting Special Agent in Charge.

“The defendants personally benefitted from filing false tax returns for clients, and yesterday’s sentence demonstrates that willfully interfering with the integrity of our nation’s tax system will result in fraudsters spending time in prison.”

This case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Shawn P. Napier prosecuted it.