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Source: United States Department of Justice

Yesterday, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida issued a preliminary injunction against Miami-area tax return preparer Christopher Brown and Brown’s tax return preparation business Superior Taxes LLC (Defendants).

The court issued the injunction over the defendants’ opposition to the government’s motion, which presented evidence that showed the defendants engaged in a pattern and practice of preparing and filing false returns that understated their customers’ federal income tax liabilities and claimed inflated tax refunds by: (1) claiming incorrect filing statutes, such as “head of household”; (2) fabricating or inflating business losses on Form 1040 Schedule C; (3) falsifying residential energy credits; and (4) fabricating or inflating education credits. Defendants used these schemes to reduce taxable income so that customers could claim the earned income tax credit despite knowing the customers weren’t eligible to claim these deductions and credits.

In addition to finding strong proof that the defendants fabricated deductions and losses, the court determined that the government would face irreparable harm absent a preliminary injunction. The court found Brown’s explanation that he had made a “concerted effort to take more precautions when preparing tax returns” this current tax season was “unavailing” considering the number of “inaccurate returns prepared over several years.”

The injunction bars Brown and Superior Taxes from preparing and filing tax returns for others, working for or having an ownership stake in any tax return preparation business, and advising anyone about the preparation of a tax return and requires Brown and Superior Taxes to post a copy of the preliminary injunction order at every location that they are currently operating for the current tax season.

Deputy Assistant Attorney General Joshua Wu of the Civil Division’s Tax Litigation Branch made the announcement.

Attorneys Rachel Iacangelo and Elizabeth Duncan of the Tax Litigation Branch handled this matter.

Taxpayers seeking a return preparer should remain vigilant against unscrupulous tax preparers. The IRS has information on its website for choosing a tax return preparer and has launched a free directory of federal tax preparers. The IRS also offers 10 tips to avoid tax season fraud and ways to safeguard their personal information.

In the past decade, the Department of Justice has obtained injunctions against hundreds of unscrupulous tax preparers. Information about these cases is available on the Justice Department’s website. An alphabetical listing of persons enjoined from preparing returns and promoting tax schemes can be found on this page. If you believe that one of the enjoined persons or businesses may be violating an injunction, please contact the Civil Division, Tax Litigation Branch with details.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

SAN DIEGO – Steven Terrell Lewis of El Cajon was sentenced in federal court today to 19.5 years in prison for attempted coercion and enticement of a 14-year-old high school student and attempted sex trafficking by force or coercion of a 22-year-old woman. At today’s hearing, the adult victim addressed the court, describing the devastating harm human traffickers inflict and how they deliberately target society’s most vulnerable – including children and, in her case, individuals experiencing homelessness. The mother of the minor victim provided a written statement to the court, sayng the defendant’s “predatory behavior” caused “immeasurable trauma.”

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – On March 18, 2026, ASHISH KAPOOR, a/k/a “Romy Kapoor,” (“KAPOOR”) age 28, a national of India, pled guilty on March 18, 2026 to Transportation of Child Pornography and Possession of Child Pornography, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 2252(a)(1), (a)(4)(B), (b)(1), and (b)(2), announced U.S. Attorney David I. Courcelle. 

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – OSCAR FRANCISCO AVILA-NORALES (“AVILA-NORALES”), age 47, was sentenced on March 24, 2026, after previously pleading guilty to Illegal Re-entry of a Removed Alien, in violation of Title 8, United States Code, Section 1326 (a), announced United States Attorney David I. Courcelle. 

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – On March 25, 2026, a federal grand jury returned an indictment charging Rafael Ángel Méndez-Nieves, a 51-year-old man from Bayamón, Puerto Rico, for child exploitation and weapons charges, announced W. Stephen Muldrow, United States Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico. On March 26, 2026, Homeland Security Investigations special agents arrested Méndez-Nieves.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

SAN DIEGO – Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of California filed 132 border-related cases this week, including charges of bringing in aliens for financial gain, reentering the U.S. after deportation, and importation of controlled substances. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California is the fourth-busiest federal district, largely due to a high volume of border-related crimes. This district, encompassing San Diego and Imperial counties, shares a 140-mile border with Mexico. It includes the San Ysidro Port of Entry, the world’s busiest land border crossing, connecting San Diego (America’s eighth largest city) and Tijuana (Mexico’s second largest city).

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

JOHN MURIUKU WAMUIGAH, 36, a citizen of Kenya, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Janet C. Hall in New Haven to approximately 23 months of imprisonment, time already served, for his participation in a business email compromise scheme that operated out of multiple countries, including the United States.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – On March 19, 2026, YANCY MATIRNE (“MATIRNE”) and ERROL POINTS (“POINTS”), both from New Orleans, were charged on Marchs 19, 2026 in a three-count indictment by a federal grand jury, announced U.S. Attorney David I. Courcelle.

Source: United States Department of Justice

The owner of a telemedicine company pleaded guilty today to organizing and leading a $46.2 million Medicare fraud conspiracy that spanned more than six years.

According to court documents, Christopher Harwood, 43, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, admitted that he owned and operated a telemedicine company called TelevisitMD. Harwood and his co-conspirators targeted Medicare patients through aggressive telemarketing campaigns, inducing them to accept orthotic braces and genetic tests that they did not need. Harwood paid doctors to approve orders for these braces and genetic tests. These doctors did not follow Medicare’s rules for telemedicine visits, did not have real medical relationships with the Medicare patients, and often signed orders for orthotic braces and genetic tests without any meaningful interaction with the Medicare patients. Harwood then sold the signed doctors’ orders to durable medical equipment (DME) supply companies, laboratories, and marketers who were part of the scheme.

Harwood also owned and operated multiple DME supply companies based in Florida that he used to bill Medicare millions of dollars for orthotic braces that Medicare patients did not want or need. In total, at least $46.2 million in false and fraudulent claims were submitted to Medicare as part of Harwood’s scheme. Medicare paid $17.9 million based on these claims, and Harwood personally received more than $10.4 million from the fraud scheme.

Harwood pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud and agreed to pay $17.9 million in restitution. Sentencing will be scheduled at a later date. Harwood faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; Acting Deputy Inspector General for Investigations Scott J. Lampert of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG); and Special Agent in Charge Brett Skiles of the FBI Miami Field Office made the announcement.

HHS-OIG and FBI investigated the case.

Trial Attorney Owen Dunn of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section is prosecuting the case.

The Fraud Section leads the Criminal Division’s efforts to combat health care fraud through the Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program. Since March 2007, this program, currently comprised of eight strike forces operating in federal districts across the country, has charged more than 6,200 defendants who collectively billed federal health care programs and private insurers more than $45 billion. In addition, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services, are taking steps to hold providers accountable for their involvement in health care fraud schemes. More information can be found at www.justice.gov/criminal-fraud/health-care-fraud-unit.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Pablo Soria-Porras, Sergio Solano-Sanchez, Eduardo Benitez-Jacinto, and Jesus Diaz Iniguez, who are all illegal aliens from Mexico, face federal charges after law enforcement seized approximately 44 pounds of methamphetamine and two firearms in drug trafficking operations in and around Douglasville and South Fayetteville, Georgia this week.