LOS ANGELES – A federal court has issued an order that permanently bars a tax return preparer who operated offices in Pasadena – as well as other cities in California, Colorado and Kansas – from preparing federal income tax returns, United States Attorney Nick Hanna announced today.

Maria Del Consuelo Vazquez is the subject of a permanent injunction filed Monday by United States District Judge Fernando M. Olguin. In Monday's order, Judge Olguin also prohibited Vazquez from owning a tax return preparation business.

Vasquez operated tax preparation business in Pasadena; Corona; Santa Ana; Brighton, Colorado; and Hutchinson, Kansas under a Nevada corporation she called MCV Business Network, Inc. In recent years, Vazquez filed thousands of tax returns for clients under her IRS-issued Preparer Tax Identification Number (PTIN).

According to a lawsuit filed by federal prosecutors on July 13 and testimony presented to the court, Vazquez substantially inflated or completely fabricated charitable contributions and unreimbursed employee business expenses to illegally generate federal income tax refunds for her clients or to substantially understate clients' tax liabilities.

“Vazquez prepared and filed a total of 9,216 tax returns from January 1, 2015 to May 21, 2018 with her PTIN,” Judge Olguin wrote. “Based on the average deficiency of $2,830.29 from her audited returns, that suggests Vazquez's fraudulent returns have resulted in harm of over $26 million to the United States from January 1, 2015 to present.”

This case against Vazquez was handled by Assistant United States Attorney Melissa Briggs of the Tax Division.