Henderson man admits guilt in tax scheme costing IRS $8M
A Henderson accountant has pleaded guilty in federal court in Las Vegas to running a scheme in which he sold false tax deductions through investments in his company that led the IRS to lose $8 million in tax revenue.
Lance Bradford, a former CPA, agreed to admit guilt to aiding and assisting the filing of false tax returns for his lead role in the plan to sell the deductions to investors, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office in Nevada.
Bradford, a Henderson resident and founder and manager of the Las Vegas accounting firm LL Bradford & Co., had offered clients of his tax preparation, audit and consulting services an “investment opportunity” to make payments to his partnership in exchange for a tax deduction, the office reported.
He maintained that the deduction would be “approximately five to seven times the amount of money the client ‘invested,’’’ federal prosecutors said.
“Bradford advised that the clients’ payments would entitle them to claim the large tax deduction based on losses derived from the partnership entity even though the tax laws did not permit the sale of such deductions in exchange for an investment or money and the partnership did not incur the losses or depreciation in the amounts Bradford was selling,” according to prosecutors.
As a result, he allegedly allowed the tax returns of his investor clients to claim false deductions that caused the IRS to run up at least $8 million in losses, U.S. prosecutors charged.
Bradford is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court on Jan. 16 and faces a maximum penalty of three years in prison, supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties, prosecutors stated.
Contact Jeff Burbank at jburbank@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0382. Follow @JeffBurbank2 on X.
