Vanessa Roberts Avery, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that ANA NUNEZ, also known as Ana Pagoaga, 51, of Naugatuck, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Michael P. Shea in Hartford to 36 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for filing false tax returns for clients of her tax preparation service.
According to court documents and statements made in court, from 2011 to 2016, Nunez owned and operated Nunez MultiServices, LLC, a tax return preparation service located in Naugatuck. During that time, Nunez filed approximately 6,000 returns for approximately 2,600 different individual taxpayers. On numerous tax returns she prepared for clients, Nunez routinely inflated income or created fictitious income; falsified expenses, including education and childcare expenses, and falsified deductions, such as business mileage.
Judge Shea ordered Nunez to pay $501,933 in restitution to the IRS, and $78,829 to the State of Connecticut.
On December 6, 2018, a grand jury in New Haven returned an indictment charging Nunez with multiple counts of filing false tax returns. Nunez subsequently obstructed the prosecution of this matter by creating false invoices to clients, which she provided to the government in an apparent attempt to justify additional monies she took from her clients’ refunds, and by attempting to intimidate a potential witness.
On January 7, 2020, Nunez pleaded guilty to two counts of aiding and assisting the filing of a false tax return.
Nunez, who is released on bond, is required to report to prison on July 25.
This matter was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation Division, with the assistance of the State of Connecticut’s Department of Revenue Services. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Susan L. Wines and John T. Pierpont, Jr.