Probate Law News

Lake Worth Tax Return Preparer Convicted On Tax Fraud, Contempt Charges

R. Alexander Acosta, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Eileen J. O’Connor, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Tax Division, and Michael Yasofsky, Jr., Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Criminal Investigation Division, announced today that, following a five-week trial, a federal jury in West Palm Beach found defendant Louis Wayne Ratfield, a Lake Worth, Florida, tax return preparer, guilty on fifty charges in connection with his participation in a tax fraud scheme to hide income and assets in bogus trusts.

On April 13, 2006, Ratfield was charged in a fifty-six count Indictment with preparing for clients and himself fraudulent federal individual and trust income tax returns, corruptly impeding the enforcement of the tax laws, and criminal contempt. Prior to trial, the government dismissed five of those counts. The Indictment alleged and evidence offered at trial established that Ratfield operated LWR Accounting and Tax Service, a tax preparation business, later called LWR Financial Services Trust. The businesses were located in Lake Worth. REad more at usdoj.gov.

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	Did You Know?
	Probate Transfers Legal Title Of Property Probate is the means by which legal title of property transfers from the estate of the person who has died, to his or her proper beneficiaries. The term "probate" refers to proving the existence of a valid Will, or determining and proving who one's legal beneficiaries are if there is no Will. Since you can't take it with you, probate is the process used to determine who gets your property.