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Renaissance director faces a 78-month dark age

December 10, 2009

Creating fake home-based business deductions is a scam that never goes out of style, but that doesn't make it a good idea, as a Tennessee man learned yesterday:

The former tax director of Topeka-based Renaissance, The Tax People, Inc., has been sentenced to 78 months in federal prison for tax fraud.

61-year old Daniel Joel Gleason of Franklin, Tennessee was also ordered to pay more than $3 million in restitution and barred from preparing tax returns.

Gleason admitted assisting in the preparation of 56 false income tax returns - either falsely inflating or falsely creating business deductions for personal living expenses.

Renaissance - The Tax People was in some ways the essence of multi-level marketing tax scams. While many folks use the pretext of marketing vitamins or household items for deducting personal expenses, RTP in effect just marketed the tax scam. RTP people tried to get downstream people to explain to other downstream people the the benefits of taking deductions for personal expenses.

RTP had a "dream team" of tax professionals, including a former IRS District Director. Their dream has created a tax nightmare for them and for those gullible enough to believe their claims.

Tags: scams.tax crime.

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