Tables have now turned as John Anthony Castro, owner of the Castro and Company LLC, a virtual tax preparation enterprise in Orlando, Mansfield, and Washington D.C., the man who lobbied to remove former president Donald Trump from the presidential ballots across the United States was charged with 33 counts of tax fraud.
Castro was arrested for fabricating false deductions without informing the taxpayers, to pocket inflated refunds. The business owner had frequently proposed among taxpayers to split the refund.
Based on the information released by the Department of Justice, “Castro would promise a significantly higher refund than taxpayers could receive from other preparers and on many occasions, offered to split the additional refund with taxpayers.”
Furthermore, “To achieve these larger refunds, Castro generated false deductions, that were not based in fact, and which were submitted without the taxpayer’s knowledge.”
In 2018, an undercover official who posed as a taxpayer sought Mr. Castro’s assistance. However, Castro refused an in-person meeting without a $5,000 retainer but offered virtual assistance.
According to the recorded conversation, Castro stated the expected refund, claiming he could outperform other tax firms.
One of Castro’s employees interviewed the agent regarding the tax deductions but failed to detail what are the deductions applicable to the agent. Afterward, the tax firm owner filed the agent’s tax return, claiming $29,339 in fraudulent deductions, the IRS then issued a $6,007 refund, of which Castro got $2,999 for his services while the agent received $3,008. Authorities said that Castro has been using the same strategy with other clients.
If found guilty, Castro will be imprisoned for 99 years.
Despite these, the tax firm owner maintained his innocence, alleging that the case against him was politically motivated.
“This is not by happenstance, this is not by pure chance at all. This is intentional targeting and political retaliation and abuse of the grand jury process,” says Castro.
“They’re just concerned with the headline ‘person suing Trump is arrested on tax charges.’ It’s their way of trying to sideline me and basically just silence me.”
According to the New York Times, Castro has filed a motion in at least 27 states to remove the GOP leader Trump from the ballot. However, his efforts continue to fail. Castro’s basis was similar to the justification of the Colorado Supreme Court that the 14th Amendment in the Constitution prohibits any candidate who has engaged in insurrection or rebellion from holding office.
However, Trump has neither been convicted nor faced insurrection charges.
Castro was a lesser-known Republican presidential candidate.
