Opinion ID: 4843446
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Investment Equity Development, Inc.

Text: The present tax-fraud charges arose from Jeune’s tax-preparation business, Investment Equity Development, Incorporated, and another business that occupied the same building, Jacob G. Jeune, Professional Association, named after Jeune’s son. On September 4, 2007, Jeune incorporated Investment Equity as a professional- 4 USCA11 Case: 19-13018 Date Filed: 08/23/2021 Page: 5 of 65 tax-preparation business located at 111 NW 183rd Street, Miami, Florida. She listed herself as its registered agent and vice president and opened a SunTrust bank account under Investment Equity’s name. She also listed on at least three individual incometax returns that her occupation was “office manager” and “bookkeeper” and that Investment Equity was her employer and tax preparer. At some point, Investment Equity became inactive because of its failure to timely file the proper paperwork with the State of Florida. But on May 6, 2009, Jeune filed paperwork to reinstate Investment Equity, listing the same mailing address and keeping her original titles as registered agent and vice president. Only this time, Jeune identified Nicole Jeune as the director of Investment Equity. Notably, Jeune reinstated Investment Equity just one week before she was sentenced for her 2009 tax-fraud conviction. While Jeune was serving her sentence, the oddities at Investment Equity continued. At the time, Investment Equity paid for a commercial-tax-preparation program provided by Drake Software. Drake Software tracks the electronic transmission of tax returns by business, tax preparer, and electronic filing identification number (“EFIN”), which is necessary for business providers to be able to electronically file tax returns with the IRS. During the nine months Jeune was incarcerated, Drake recorded at least 67 tax returns filed by someone from 5 USCA11 Case: 19-13018 Date Filed: 08/23/2021 Page: 6 of 65 Investment Equity using the EFIN 654945, a number Draft Software (incorrectly) associated with belonging to Jeune. Drake Software also logs the calls that tax professionals make to its customersupport line. While Jeune was incarcerated, Drake Software’s call logs indicate that 22 calls were made on behalf of Investment Equity by someone identifying as “Tamara” with the EFIN 654945. Adding further to the mystery, the EFIN 654945 actually belonged to Jeune’s ex-husband, Louis Voltaire. After Jeune completed her prison sentence, as we have mentioned, by the terms of her supervised release, she could not work at Investment Equity or any taxpreparation business during her one year supervised-release period, which ended on February 9, 2011. But Jeune faced another consequence of her 2009 tax-fraud conviction. As a recently convicted felon, she could not maintain or apply for an EFIN. That was so because an individual or person on behalf of a business must pass a criminal background check to obtain and maintain an EFIN and electronically file taxes with the IRS. In contrast, a preparer tax identification number (“PTIN”), which does not require a criminal background check, is used to identify individual professionals who prepare IRS tax returns or claims for refund. But EFIN holders are the only ones authorized to transmit tax returns through the IRS’s electronic filing system. 6 USCA11 Case: 19-13018 Date Filed: 08/23/2021 Page: 7 of 65 So after her release from prison, Jeune could serve in only a limited capacity with Investment Equity. According to her 2011 tax return, she returned to Investment Equity as an “office manager” earning an annual salary of $67,000.