19 Counts for a Meriden Preparer
Yuridia Trujillo, a tax return preparer from Meriden, Connecticut, has been indicted on 19 federal counts accusing her of filing returns that claimed losses on stocks and crypto her clients never owned. A federal grand jury returned the indictment on October 7, and authorities arrested her on October 9; she has since posted $50,000 in bond and is awaiting trial. The case was announced on October 22 by the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut, and the IRS Criminal Investigation notice laying out the alleged tax fraud scheme at her firm, Yuri’s LLC, describes fictitious losses from purchases and sales of securities and digital assets the customers had never held. Prosecutors say Trujillo prepared at least 4,335 returns for tax years 2017 through 2024. That figure covers her total output rather than the number of allegedly false filings. Many of the returns, the charging document alleges, carried fabricated records involving retirement contributions, dependent care, business activity and rental property expenses. The government also alleges she misused Form 8888, the schedule that lets a taxpayer split a direct-deposit refund across as many as three bank accounts, by entering accounts belonging to herself and an associate so that portions of client refunds were redirected to them. The filings do not state the total amount of refund money allegedly diverted. The indictment sits inside a broader federal sweep targeting fabricated deductions and the suspected diversion of refund money. Each of the 19 counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation and presentation of a false income tax return carries a statutory maximum of three years in prison upon conviction, meaning the exposure runs to decades if prosecutors proved every charge. The charges remain allegations, and Trujillo is presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
From Phantom Losses to Understated Gains
The tax mechanics at issue are standard. A capital loss arises when an investment asset is sold below its adjusted cost basis, generally the purchase price plus permitted adjustments such as fees, and such a loss can offset capital gains. Where losses exceed gains, an individual filer can usually deduct up to $3,000 of the remainder against other income each year, or $1,500 for those married filing separately, and carry unused amounts into later years. The Schedule D arithmetic applies whether the asset sold was an S&P 500 ETF, a single stock or a token: crypto disposals are reported asset by asset on Form 8949, then aggregated on Schedule D, with receipts and the dollar value of the asset at the time of each sale or exchange kept as support. The IRS treats crypto as property and asks holders to report gain or loss when investment holdings are sold or otherwise disposed of. Losses realized on holdings sold through a bear market are legitimate; losses booked on assets the taxpayer never purchased are not. A separate Justice Department case shows the other side of the same rules. Frank Richard Ahlgren III, an early Bitcoin (BTC) investor from Austin, pleaded guilty to falsifying the cost basis of Bitcoin he sold in 2017, understating the gain on a real trade. He was sentenced on December 12, 2024 to two years in prison and ordered to pay $1,095,031 in restitution to the United States, as the Justice Department announcement records. The court treated the misstated basis as a false statement on his returns rather than a hidden position. Reporting is also widening: under digital asset broker rules finalized in 2024, brokers report gross proceeds on 2025 transactions in 2026, and cost basis on certain 2026 transactions in 2027.